Abstract
Summary form only given. The authors discuss recent work on characterizing metals exposed to single and multiple pulses from high-energy ion-beams (300 keV to 1 MeV) composed of protons or a mixture of protons and C. Exposure of 0-1 tool steel to a single pulse of a 1-MeV ion beam (proton + C) at a energy density of 5 J/cm/sup 2/ resulted in the melting and resolidification of the top seven microns of the material. Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and optical metallography analyses of the treated surface showed that ion beam treatment resulted in the transformation of a large grained, equilibrium carbide and bcc (body centered cubic) iron microstructure to a mixture of fine-grained carbide, bcc iron, and metastable fcc (face centered cubic) iron. The transformation of the microstructure was accompanied by a three-fold increase in the nominal surface hardness. In addition, scanning electron microscopy shows that the surface of a roughened commercial Ti-Al-V alloy was significantly smoothed by exposure to a single pulse of a 1-MeV proton beam.
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