Material Surface Modification Using Pulsed, High Power Plasma-Ion Beam Technology

The present proposal describes a novel version of a pulsed, high power plasma-ion beam generator which can be used for material surface preparation, modification and synthesis. Interactio of the high power, pulsed plasma-ion flow with the material surface provides surface preparation, fast melting and cooling and ion mixing in the surface layer. This is a promising technique for the formation of hard plating layers or modified surface layers with enhanced adhesion, wear and corrosion resistance characteristics. The proposed approach combines the surface preparation and modification in a single step process and produces virtually no secondary wastes. In the Phase I effort we will focus our attention on the modification of surface properties of samples including steel and alluminum and materials that have surface layers deposited by conventional means. Deposited layers will include boron carbon and silicon. Analysis of the physcial characteristics of the modified material samples, including microhardness, corrosion and wear resistance and chemical mixing at the sample surface, will be carried out using standard techniques and will be correlated with the plasma-ion system parameters.