Novel instrument for material surface treatment by pulsed high power density plasma beam

While great interest has been focused on low temperature plasma for material processing, the concept of using pulsed high speed and high temperature plasma beam for material surface treatment was put forward. Thus a novel instrument based on Thetatron-Pinch was built up and the plasma beam with a temperature of several hundred eVs and a density up to 10(16) cm(-3) was created uniformly over a large cross section. The plasma beam was then accelerated by a sample bias of 0-2.0 kV under a high vacuum circumstance. The energy density exerted on the sample surface is 1-20 J/cm(2) with a duration time of less than 10 mu s, which is comparable to that of laser treatment. Preliminary experiments indicate that this method has the combining feature of laser treatment and ion implantation techniques when it is used for surface modification; moreover, a transient high temperature and high pressure environment exists on the treated surface in this technique and the plasma contains a high concentration of radical particles. Both facts are advantageous to chemical vapor deposition applications. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(97)04411-0].