Plasma Shield

Summary form only given. The plasma shield is a vortex stabilized arc that is employed to shield beams and workpiece area of interaction from atmospheric or liquid environment. A vortex-stabilized arc is established between a beam generating device (laser, ion or electron gun) and the target object. The arc, which is composed of a pure noble gas (chemically inert), engulfs the interaction region and generates an outward flow, thus, shielding it from any surrounding liquids (water) or atmospheric gases. The vortex is composed of a sacrificial gas or liquid that swirls around and stabilizes the arc. In current art, many industrial processes like ion material modification by ion implantation, dry etching, and micro-fabrication, as well as, electron beam processing, like electron beam machining and electron beam melting is performed exclusively in vacuum, since electron guns, ion guns, their extractors and accelerators must be kept at a reasonably high vacuum, and since chemical interactions with atmospheric gases adversely affect various processes. Various processes involving electron, ion and laser beams can, with the plasma shield, be performed in practically any environment. For example, electron beam and laser welding can be performed under water. It allows for in situ repair of ship and nuclear reactor components, as well as in air ion implantation of semiconductors