Material Surface Modification Using Ion Beams Generated in a Plasma Opening Switch.*

A low voltage ( < 200 kV) pulsed ion beam generator which produces a radial convergent beam of 10 kA is being developed based on the concept of the Plasma Opening Switch (POS). The ion beam generator will be used for material surface modification. The approach combines initial surface preparation by the current carrying plasma flow which occurs on a microsecond time scale followed by a 100 to 150 keV, 100 ns ion beam, which provides controllable energy input to the sample surface in the range of 0.1 to 10 J/cm^2 over an area of 10 to 10^2 cm^2. Initial results on characterization of the ion beam and modified properties of surface layers, for several different metals, will be presented. The project is supported under ARPA Grant F49620-96-1-0181.