Ion Implantation

Ion implantation is a materials engineering process by which ions of a material are accelerated in an electrical field and impacted into a solid. This process is used to change the physical, chemical, or electrical properties of the solid. Ion implantation is used in semiconductor device fabrication and in metal finishing, as well as various applications in materials science research. The ions alter the elemental composition of the target, if the ions differ in composition from the target, stop in the target and stay there. They also cause much chemical and physical change in the target by transferring their energy and momentum to the electrons and atomic nuclei of the target material. This causes a structural change, in that the crystal structure of the target can be damaged or even destroyed by the energetic collision cascades. Because the ions have masses comparable to those of the target atoms, they knock the target atoms out of place more than electron beams do. If the ion energy is sufficiently high (usually tens of MeV) to overcome the coulomb barrier, there can even be a small amount of nuclear transmutation.