Materials Science with Ion Beams

This book introduces materials scientists and designers, physicists and chemists to the properties of materials that can be modified by ion irradiation or implantation. These techniques can help design new materials or to test modified properties; novel applications already show that ion-beam techniques are complementary to others, yielding previously unattainable properties. Also, ion-beam interactions modify materials at the nanoscale, avoiding the often detrimental results of lithographic or chemical techniques. Here, the effects are related to better-known quasi-equilibrium thermodynamics, and the consequences to materials are discussed with concepts that are familiar to materials science. Examples addressed concern semiconductor physics, crystal and nanocluster growth, optics, magnetism, and applications to geology and biology.