Metal-arc-plasma ion implantation of materials used in aerospace applications

Ion implantation is a well-known technique used in surface treatment of materials. During the 80´s ion implantation using a sample immersed in an ionized gaseous medium (known as plasma immersion ion implantation) revealed to be an alternative to the conventional ion beam implantation. However the further development of this non-conventional surface processing using metallic ion species has been hampered until recently when metal vacuum arc sources have filled this need. This new option opened a broad range of applications for ion implantation, including the treatment of aerospace materials for prolonging their lifetime. In this paper we present the experimental results obtained on Si wafers used as tests targets, using metallic arc ion implantation. Therefore high-density plasmas (approximately 10/sup 13/ cm/sup -3/) with a high ionization rate (on the order of 50%) made of Aluminum vapor arcs (30-70 V/200-700 A) are used for the metallic implantation process.