Applications of intense pulsed ion beam to materials science

In addition to being initially developed as an energy driver for an inertial confinement fusion, an intense, pulsed, light-ion beam (LIB) has been found to be applied to materials science. If a LIB is used to irradiate targets, a high-density ''ablation'' plasma is produced near the surface since the range of the LIB in materials is very short. Since the first demonstration of quick preparation of thin films of ZnS by an intense, pulsed, ion-beam evaporation (IBE) using the LIB-produced ablation plasma, various thin films have been successfully prepared, such as of ZnS:Mn, YBaCuO, BaTiO3, cubic BN, SiC, ZrO2, ITO, B, C, and apatite. Some of these data will be presented in this paper, with its analytic solution derived from a one-dimensional, hydrodynamic, adiabatic expansion model for the IBE. The temperature will be deduced using ion-flux signals measured by a biased ion collector. Reasonable agreement is obtained between the experiment and the simulation. High-energy LIB implantation to make chemical compounds and the associated surface modification are also discussed