5 - Ion beam joining of similar and dissimilar materials

Abstract

Since past several decades various methods have been successfully tested and implemented for joining materials at micro- and nano-scales, which are crucial for fabrication of devices being built through bottom-up approach. In this chapter a novel approach of welding is discussed, which is based on low energy ion beam irradiation. The ion beam technique has been explored since quite recently and provides new dimension of opportunities to easily weld different types of materials including ceramic nanostructures, which are difficult to joining using conventional heating based methods. The current technique has been successful to join metals as well as carbon based nanomaterials apart from oxides. It has been found that at low ion energy and low ion beam current, joining occurs through mostly non-melting process and dominated by ion-atom collisional consequences. The ion induced surface defects, sputtering, plastic flow of atoms and ion beam mixing between the nanostructures play crucial role for establishing junctions using this technique.