The effects of implanting various high energy ions into Ti and Ti–6Al–4V

Samples of titanium and the alloy Ti–6Al–4V were implanted with five different types of ions (C, Si, Ti, Pt and Au) at energies between 1.5 and 9 MeV. In all cases, a new hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure, previously reported only in the Au ion implantation, was observed using glancing angle X-ray diffraction. The diffraction shows the known hcp α-Ti structure, and, in addition, the new hcp structure with lattice parameters increased by 10.7%. This new structure appears at fluences near and above 1020 ions/m2, and for beam flux densities of the order of 1.5×1016 ions/m2s. The appearance of this structure with implanted ions of such varying masses and energies excludes chemical effects and suggests that the mechanism by which it is formed is independent of nuclear stopping.