METHOD OF TREATING OBJECTS WITH AN ION SOURCE Russian patent published in 1997 - IPC

FIELD: physical processing of materials. SUBSTANCE: invention refers to treatment of objects in vacuum in order to cleanse their surface, increase adhesion of applied coatings, and also for etching and ionic milling, polishing of surfaces, for spraying any materials, strengthening and modification of surface by ion implantation. Ion beam utilized in the method of invention is formed in vacuum chamber by an ion source. Opposite to emitting surface of source, an object to be treated is placed at the distance L exceeding ion free path length in ion charge-exchange mode. Charge exchange results in transforming positively charged ion beam into a neutral atom beam with no noticeable changes in direction and particle velocity value. Percentage of neutral atoms in the beam in relation to ions may be as high as is desired through varying distance L and gas pressure in the chamber. Process is independent of surface potential of an object charged with ions remaining in the beam. Reduction of this potential is promoted by electrons in synthesized plasma layer that is adjacent to ion source emitting surface. Rapid neutral atoms in the beam provide pulverization of dielectric target with energy virtually equal to that of primary ion beam. EFFECT: increased level of treating objects in many respects.