Materials modification and synthesis by ion beam processing

The symposium provided an excellent and well-attended international forum for the discussion of material science issues related to ion-beam modification and processing. In addition to work on optical materials, metals, insulators and polymers, two areas of considerable interest were electronic materials and hard coatings. Substantial attention remains focused on silicon technology, where the shrinking device dimensions of microelectronic circuits are driving the need for ultra-shallow implant depths. Another strong area of interest was hard coatings, driven in part by demands for wear-resistant recording media coatings. Considerable discussion centered on the synthesis of novel metastable materials, such as carbon nitride, amorphous carbon (DLC), multilayers and nanophases. The scientific objectives of the work presented focused on providing an in-depth understanding of phase formation and growth mechanisms of controversial metastable phases. Separate abstracts were prepared for some papers in this volume