Formation, Focusing and Transport of Highintensity, Low-Energy Metal Ion Beams

Abstract

High-intensity implantation of low-energy ions into various materials demonstrates the formation of long, ionalloyed layers having a thickness of tens and hundreds of micrometers. A deep incorporation of alloying elements in materials is achieved, first of all, due to a stronger radiation-induced ion diffusion at ultrahigh current densities and radiation fluence ranging from 1020 to 1022 cm2, when the diffusion coefficient exceeds its classical value derived from Arrhenius theory by several orders of magnitude. Nevertheless, the generation of low-energy ions with energies of several or a few kiloelectronvolts at high current densities of several hundreds of milliamperes per square metre and their effective transport, is a sophisticated problem. The paper studies the ballistic focusing of high-intensity pulsed ion beams at 2 kV accelerating voltage, 800 μs pulse time, 0.8 duty cycle, and their propagation through the preliminary injected low-density background plasma.