Quantifying low-energy nitrogen ion channeling in α-titanium by molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract

Quantification of nitrogen depth distributions resulting from the low-energy ion implantation into titanium nanoparticles allows tunable and controllable modifications of their properties. We have explored the nitrogen ion implantation into α-titanium target at 0.5–4 keV kinetic energies by molecular dynamics simulations, with particular focus on the ion channeling effects for low-index surface orientations ((001), (100), (110), (111)) at different target temperatures (300–1155 K) and different angles of incidence (0–29 °). The results indicate that the channeling significantly alters the depth distributions, being most prominent for (110) orientation, where causes a new distribution maximum to emerge at a significantly deeper position. An increasing target temperature suppresses notably (albeit not fully) the channeling and a tilted ion incident angle from a perpendicular impact allows controllable reduction of the number of channeling ions.