Ion Beam-Induced Changes in Optical Properties of MgO

The implantation of Ag into MgO (100) single crystals, followed by thermal annealing at 1,100 C, leads to dramatic changes in their optical properties. The changes in the optical properties are due to the presence of small Ag clusters which are formed in the annealed samples. The small Ag clusters are obtained by thermal annealing of the implanted MgO crystals between 600 C and 1,100 C to investigate the changes in cluster sizes and to correlate with changes in their optical properties. Sample characterization is carried out using optical spectrophotometry to confirm the effective presence of Ag clusters and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) to study the profile of Ag clusters

Nanocrystal Formation Via Yttrium Ion Implantation into Sapphire

Ion implantation has been used to form nanocrystals in the near surface of single crystal {alpha}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}. The ion fluence was 5 x 10{sup 16} Y{sup +}/cm{sup 2}, and the implant energies investigated were 100, 150, and 170 keV. The morphology of the implanted region was investigated using transmission electron microscopy, x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and ion channeling. The implantation causes the formation of an amorphous surface layer which contains spherical nanosized crystals with a diameter of {approximately}13 nm. The nanocrystals are randomly oriented and exhibit a face-centered cubic structure with a lattice parameter of {approximately}4.1 A {+-} .02 A. Preliminary chemical analysis shows that these nanocrystals are rich in aluminum and yttrium and poor in oxygen relative to the amorphous matrix

Ion beam modification of PVDC and PE polymers

Electronic and nuclear stopping effects produced by MeV ion bombardment in polyvinylidine chloride and polyethylene are separated by stacking thin films of the polymers. Resulting multi-layer laminates of each polymer were bombarded with 3.5-MeV alpha particles. Energy of the incident ions was selected using the TRIM code so that the first layers experienced most of the effects of the electronic energy deposited and the last layers received most of the effects of the nuclear stopping power. Changes in conductance and chemical structure of each layer were measured by direct resistivity measurements and Raman microprobe analysis

Nanocrystal formation via yttrium ion implantation into sapphire

Ion implantation has been used to form nanocrystals in the near surface of single crystal {alpha}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}. The ion fluence was 5 x 10{sup 16} Y{sup +}/cm{sup 2}, and the implant energies investigated were 100, 150, and 170 keV. The morphology of the implanted region was investigated using transmission electron microscopy, x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and ion channeling. The implantation causes the formation of an amorphous surface layer which contains spherical nanosized crystals with a diameter of {approximately}13 nm. The nanocrystals are randomly oriented and exhibit a face-centered cubic structure with a lattice parameter of {approximately}4.1 A {+-} .02 A. Preliminary chemical analysis shows that these nanocrystals are rich in aluminum and yttrium and poor in oxygen relative to the amorphous matrix

Investigation of Mn Implanted LiNbO{sub 3} applying electron paramagnetic resonance technique

The effect of ion implantation on the LiNbO{sub 3} crystal is studied using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR). EPR measurements on these crystals were performed as a function of ion species Mn and Fe and fluence at room temperature. Also the effect of the laser illumination on the EPR signal was determined by illuminating the crystal in situ and measuring the decay and growth of the EPR signal. LiNbO{sub 3}:Mn{sup 2+} at a depth of approximately 200 nm was formed by implantation of 2.5 {times} 10{sup 14} Mncm{sup 2} and 1 {times} 10{sup 17} Mn/cm{sup 2} at 2 MeV. The implanted samples were compared with bulk doped crystals. It was found that the decay and growth of Mn EPR for the implanted crystal is very small compared with the bulk doped LiNbO{sub 3}:Mn crystal. This was found to be primarily due to the spin concentration on the crystals. On the other, hand the decay time of the high fluence is about 40% slower than the decay of the low fluence implanted crystal

Third Order Optical Nonlinearity of Colloidal Metal Nanoclusters Formed by MeV Ion Implantation

We report the results of characterization of nonlinear refractive index of the composite material produced by MeV Ag ion implantation of LiNbO(sub 3) crystal (z-cut). The material after implantation exhibited a linear optical absorption spectrum with the surface plasmon peak near 430 nm attributed to the colloidal silver nanoclusters. Heat treatment of the material at 500 deg C caused a shift of the absorption peak to 550 nm. The nonlinear refractive index of the sample after heat treatment was measured in the region of the absorption peak with the Z-scan technique using a tunable picosecond laser source (4.5 ps pulse width).The experimental data were compared against the reference sample made of MeV Cu implanted silica with the absorption peak in the same region. The nonlinear index of the Ag implanted LiNbO(sub 3) sample produced at five times less fluence is on average two times greater than that of the reference

Ion beam-induced changes in optical properties of MgO

The implantation of Ag into MgO (100) single crystals, followed by thermal annealing at 1,100 C, leads to dramatic changes in their optical properties. The changes in the optical properties are due to the presence of small Ag clusters which are formed in the annealed samples. The small Ag clusters are obtained by thermal annealing of the implanted MgO crystals between 600 C and 1,100 C to investigate the changes in cluster sizes and to correlate with changes in their optical properties. Sample characterization is carried out using optical spectrophotometry to confirm the effective presence of Ag clusters and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) to study the profile of Ag clusters

Growth of Highly Doped P-Type Znte Films by Pulsed Laser ablation in Molecular Nitrogen

Highly p-doped ZnTe films have been grown on semi-insulating GaAs (001) substrates by pulsed-laser ablation (PLA) of a stoichiometric ZnTe target in a high-purity N{sub 2} ambient without the use of any assisting (DC or AC) plasma source. Free hole concentrations in the mid-10{sup 19} cm{sup {minus}3} to > 10{sup 20} cm{sup {minus}3} range were obtained for a range of nitrogen pressures The maximum hole concentration equals the highest hole doping reported to date for any wide band gap II-VI compound. The highest hole mobilities were attained for nitrogen pressures of 50--100 mTorr ({approximately}6.5-13 Pa). Unlike recent experiments in which atomic nitrogen beams, extracted from RF and DC plasma sources, were used to produce p-type doping during molecular beam epitaxy deposition, spectroscopic measurements carried out during PLA of ZnTe in N{sub 2} do not reveal the presence of atomic nitrogen. This suggests that the high hole concentrations in laser ablated ZnTe are produced by a new and different mechanism, possibly energetic beam-induced reactions with excited molecular nitrogen adsorbed on the growing film surface, or transient formation of Zn-N complexes in the energetic ablation plume. This appears to be the first time that any wide band gap (Eg > 2 eV) II-VI compound (or other) semiconductor has been impurity-doped from the gas phase by laser ablation. In combination with the recent discovery that epitaxial ZnSe{sub l-x}S{sub x} films and heterostructures with continuously variable composition can be grown by ablation from a single target of fixed composition, these results appear to open the way to explore PLA growth and doping of compound semiconductors as a possible alternative to molecular beam epitaxy

Properties of ion implanted Ti-6Al-4V processed using beamline and PSII techniques

The surface of Ti-6Al-4V (Ti64) alloy has been modified using beamline implantation of boron. In separate experiments, Ti64 has been implanted with nitrogen using a plasma source ion implantation (PSII) technique utilizing either ammonia (NH{sub 3}), nitrogen (N{sub 2}), or their combinations as the source of nitrogen ions. Beamline experiments have shown the hardness of the N-implanted surface saturates at a dose level of {approximately} 4 {times} 10{sup 17} at/cm{sup 2} at {approximately} 10 GPa. The present work makes comparisons of hardness and tribological tests of (1) B implantation using beamline techniques, and (2) N implanted samples using ammonia and/or nitrogen gas in a PSII process. The results show that PSII using N{sub 2} or NH{sub 3} gives similar hardness as N implantation using a beamline process. The presence of H in the Ti alloy surface does not affect the hardness of the implanted surface. Boron implantation increased the surface hardness by as much as 2.5x at the highest dose level. Wear testing by a pin-on-disk method indicated that nitrogen implantation reduced the wear rate by as much as 120x, and boron implantation reduced the wear rate by 6.5x. Increased wear resistance was accompanied by a decreased coefficient of friction