Nanostructured surface processing by an intense pulsed ion beam irradiation

Summary form only given, as follows. Metal surface modification by irradiating with an intense pulsed ion beam (IPIB) with short pulse width has been studied experimentally. An IPIB irradiation to a target leads to rapid heating above its melting point. After the beam is turned off, the heated region is immediately cooled by thermal conduction at a cooling rate of typically 10/sup 10/ K/s. This rapid cooling and resolidification results in generation of a nanostructured phase at the top of the surface. The typical hydrogen IPIB parameters are 200 kV of energy, 500 A/cm/sup 2/ of current density and 70 ns of pulsewidth. The IPIB was irradiated on pure titanium to generate a nanocrystalline phase. The IPIB-irradiated surface was examined with X-ray diffraction, SEM, and HR-TEM. The randomly oriented lattice fringes as well as a halo diffraction pattern are observed in the HR-TEM micrograph of IPTB-irradiated titanium. The average grain size is found to be 32 nanometers.