Ion Beam Processing

MRS Bulletin ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-21
Author(s):  
C.W. White

Ion beams are used extensively in materials research for processing and synthesis as well as for characterization. In the last few years, enormous advances have been made regarding the use of ion beams for processing or synthesis, and this issue of the MRS BULLETIN will review some of those advances. (The use of ion beams for materials characterization will be the subject of a future issue of the BULLETIN.) The areas covered in this issue are ion implantation, ion beam mixing, ion-assisted deposition, and direct ion beam deposition. For each area, recognized experts in the field prepared overview articles that should be very interesting to those who are not active in the field, and that should be useful to other experts in the field.The first large-scale use of ion beams for materials modification took place in the semiconductor industry more than 20 years ago when ion implantation began to be used to dope the near-surface region of silicon with Group III or Group V dopants. The use of ion implantation in the semiconductor industry has undergone explosive growth, and today almost all electronic devices are fabricated utilizing at lest one ion implantation step.In addition to the semiconductor area, research is being carried out using ion implantation in a multitude of other areas which include ceramics, metals and alloys, insulators, etc. The article on “Ion Implantation” by S.T. Picraux and P.S. Peercy provides an excellent overview of current research activities involving ion implantation of a wide spectrum of materials.

1997 ◽  
Vol 504 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. N. Gurarie ◽  
D. N. Jamieson ◽  
R. Szymanski ◽  
A. V. Orlov ◽  
J. S. Williams

ABSTRACTMonocrystals of magnesium oxide and sapphire have been subjected to ion implantation with 86 keV Si− ions to a dose of 5×1016 cm−2 and with 3 MeV H+ ions with a dose of 4.8×1017 cm−2 prior to thermal stress testing in a pulsed plasma. Fracture and deformation characteristics of the surface layer were measured in ion implanted and unimplanted samples using optical and scanning electron microscopy. Ion implantation is shown to modify the near-surface structure of samples by introducing damage, which makes crack nucleation easier under the applied stress. The effect of ion dose on the thermal stress resistance is investigated and the critical doses which produce a noticeable change in the stress resistance is determined for sapphire crystals implanted with 86 keV Si−. In comparison with 86 keV Si− ions the high energy implantation of sapphire and magnesium oxide crystals with 3 MeV H+ ions results in the formation of large-scale defects, which produce a low density crack system and cause a considerable reduction in the resistance to damage. Fracture mechanics principles are applied to evaluate the size of the implantation-induced microcracks which are shown to be comparable with the ion range and the damage range in the crystals tested. Possible mechanisms of crack nucleation for a low and high energy ion implantation are discussed.


1988 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Mccune ◽  
W. T. Donlon ◽  
H. K. Plummer ◽  
L. Toth ◽  
F. W. Kunz

ABSTRACTSurface layers with overall thickness <∼300 nm were produced by ion implantation of N+ or N2+ at energies of 50 or 100 keV in 99.99% pure aluminum. These surfaces were characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, Rutherford backscattering, nuclear reaction analysis and particle-induced X-ray analysis. At doses above 2×1017 N2/cm2 , blistering of the surfaces was observed along with a reduction in the extent of the coulometric dose retained by the material. Oxygen is believed to be introduced into the near-surface region by a process of reaction and ion-beam mixing, as well as possible CO contamination of the beam. A phase, isostructural with AlN, forms semi-coherently with parent aluminum grains, however, some fraction of the metallic aluminum phase remains in the reaction layer, even at overall nitrogen contents which exceed the stoichiometry of AlN.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A. Lilienfeld ◽  
L.S. Hung ◽  
J.W. Mayer

In the last quarter of a century, modification of the near-surface region of materials has become of major technological importance. The principal surface modification technique utilized in integrated circuit technology is ion implantation, a technique which has more recently been applied in the metal-processing industry as well. The very high doses required for applications such as increasing the hardness of steel or forming buried oxide layers in silicon have pushed ion implantation to its limits. Ion beam mixing, the intermixing of surface layers by the penetration of energetic ions through them, was developed to overcome these limits. Additionally, ion beam mixing has been able to produce new phases, amorphous and crystalline, which have technologically and scientifically interesting properties.Ion beam mixing was studied extensively in silicide forming systems, due partly to applications to electrical contacts for silicon devices. In intermetallic alloy systems, research has concentrated on determining the interplay between the formation of amorphous and crystalline structures and that between equilibrium and metastable phases. Although over 50 alloy systems have been studied, this article will concentrate on the Al-based alloys. These alloys, particularly the near-noble-metal alloys, demonstrate nearly all the features associated with ion-induced phase formation. Further, Al-rich refractory metal alloys form quasicrystalline icosahe-dral alloys. Ion-beam mixing results parallel those of splat-quenching, the technique first used to produce the fivefold symmetric structure.


1986 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Becker

AbstractThis paper briefly reviews previous results and developments, then presents new results, using a novel surface analytical technique that uses non-resonant multiphoton ionization (MPI) of neutral atoms and molecules sputtered by an ion beam, or desorbed by an electron beam or laser beam. In this method, which we call surface analysis by laser ionization (SALI), the non-resonant MPI, or “laser ionization,” is coupled with state-of-the-art time-of-flight mass spectrometry to provide extremely sensitive, general, and readily quantifiable surface analysis. Examples are presented for two applications relevant to the semiconductor industry and for the analysis of the near surface region of two specially pretreated stainless steels. A discussion also describes the favorable prospects for implementation of SALI with submicron dimension liquid metal ion beams for microanalysis, including situations with electron beam sensitive samples.


Author(s):  
John D. Rubio

The degradation of steam generator tubing at nuclear power plants has become an important problem for the electric utilities generating nuclear power. The material used for the tubing, Inconel 600, has been found to be succeptible to intergranular attack (IGA). IGA is the selective dissolution of material along its grain boundaries. The author believes that the sensitivity of Inconel 600 to IGA can be minimized by homogenizing the near-surface region using ion implantation. The collisions between the implanted ions and the atoms in the grain boundary region would displace the atoms and thus effectively smear the grain boundary.To determine the validity of this hypothesis, an Inconel 600 sample was implanted with 100kV N2+ ions to a dose of 1x1016 ions/cm2 and electrolytically etched in a 5% Nital solution at 5V for 20 seconds. The etched sample was then examined using a JEOL JSM25S scanning electron microscope.


1983 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.J. Galvin ◽  
L.S. Hung ◽  
J.W. Mayer ◽  
M. Nastasi

ABSTRACTEnergetic ion beams used outside the traditional role of ion implantation are considered for semiconductor applications involving interface modification for self-aligned silicide contacts, composition modification for formation of buried oxide layers in Si on insulator structures and reduced disorder in high energy ion beam annealing for buried collectors in transistor fabrication. In metals, aside from their use in modification of the composition of near surface regions, energetic ion beams are being investigated for structural modification in crystalline to amorphous transitions. Pulsed beams of photons and electrons are used as directed energy sources in rapid solidification. Here, we consider the role of temperature gradients and impurities in epitaxial growth of silicon.


2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Lich

DualBeam instruments that combine the imaging capability of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with the cutting and deposition capability of a focused ion beam (FIB) provide biologists with a powerful tool for investigating three-dimensional structure with nanoscale (1 nm-100 nm) resolution. Ever since Van Leeuwenhoek used the first microscope to describe bacteria more than 300 years ago, microscopy has played a central role in scientists' efforts to understand biological systems. Light microscopy is generally limited to a useful resolution of about a micrometer. More recently the use of confocal and electron microscopy has enabled investigations at higher resolution. Used with fluorescent markers, confocal microscopy can detect and localize molecular scale features, but its imaging resolution is still limited. SEM is capable of nanometer resolution, but is limited to the near surface region of the sample.


Metals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinchun Chen ◽  
Xuan Yin ◽  
Jie Jin

To satisfy the harsh service demand of stainless steel and aviation bearing steel, the anticorrosion and wettability behaviors of 9Cr18 stainless steel and M50 bearing steel tailored by ion beam surface modification technology were experimentally investigated. By controlling the ion implantation (F+, N+, N+ + Ti+) or deposition processes, different surface-modified layers and ceramic layers or composite layers with both effects (ion implantation and deposition processes) were obtained on metal surfaces. The wettability was characterized by a contact angle instrument, and the thermodynamics stabilization of ion implantation-treated metals in corrosive solution was evaluated through an electrochemical technique. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed for detecting the chemical bonding states of the implanted elements. The results indicated that ion implantation or deposition-induced surface-modified layers or coating layers could increase water contact angles, namely improving hydrophobicity as well as thermodynamic stabilization in corrosive medium. Meanwhile, wettability with lubricant oil was almost not changed. The implanted elements could induce the formation of new phases in the near-surface region of metals, and the wettability behaviors were closely related to the as-formed ceramic components and amorphous sublayer.


1994 ◽  
Vol 339 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Heera ◽  
R. Kögler ◽  
W. Skorupa ◽  
J. Stoemenos

ABSTRACTThe evolution of the damage in the near surface region of single crystalline 6H-SiC generated by 200 keV Ge+ ion implantation at room temperature (RT) was investigated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy/chanelling (RBS/C). The threshold dose for amorphization was found to be about 3 · 1014 cm-2, Amorphous surface layers produced with Ge+ ion doses above the threshold were partly annealed by 300 keV Si+ ion beam induced epitaxial crystallization (IBIEC) at a relatively low temperature of 480°C For comparison, temperatures of at least 1450°C are necessary to recrystallize amorphous SiC layers without assisting ion irradiation. The structure and quality of both the amorphous and recrystallized layers were characterized by cross-section transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). Density changes of SiC due to amorphization were measured by step height measurements.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Jin ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Xinchun Chen

In this study, Ti + N ion implantation was used as a surface modification method for surface hardening and friction-reducing properties of Cronidur30 bearing steel. The structural modification and newly-formed ceramic phases induced by the ion implantation processes were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD). The mechanical properties of the samples were tested by nanoindentation and friction experiments. The surface nanohardness was also improved significantly, changing from ~10.5 GPa (pristine substrate) to ~14.2 GPa (Ti + N implanted sample). The friction coefficient of Ti + N ion implanted samples was greatly reduced before failure, which is less than one third of pristine samples. Furthermore, the TEM analyses confirmed a trilamellar structure at the near-surface region, in which amorphous/ceramic nanocrystalline phases were embedded into the implanted layers. The combined structural modification and hardening ceramic phases played a crucial role in improving surface properties, and the variations in these two factors determined the differences in the mechanical properties of the samples.


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