Chapter 4 - Surface Modification of Materials by Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation

Abstract

Modification of surfaces is an attractive way to achieve the desired property at the surface or in the near surface region of any bulk material. Surface modifications can be done by alloying/mixing elements at the surface of bulk materials or by an adherent overlayer on bulk materials. Plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) is one among the surface modification techniques and was developed by Conrad and his co-workers at the University of Wisconsin in 1991 [1] . PIII is an emerging technology for the surface modification of semiconductors, metals, and insulators. Materials to be treated are immersed in a plasma at a given potential. Intricate/complex shapes can be treated rather uniformly with this technique. Indeed, this technology offers a substantially uniform ion bombardment of components, removing the line-of-sight restrictions of conventional ion beam implanters, as well as providing a more simple way to treat large surface areas. As there is no ion beam rastering as in conventional ion implantation, the treatment time can be reduced with PIII. This could support the introduction of PIII into manufacturing processes in a competitive manner compared to conventional ion implanatation. The physics and technology of the PIII process are discussed in Section 4.2 . In Section 4.3 , the potential of this technique for depositing low friction and wear resistant layers is discussed. In addition, the nitriding of stainless steel and the formation of intermixed layers are discussed. Applications of PIII in the fields of microelectronics and medicine are discussed in Sections 4.4 and 4.5 .