AVS 49th International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session AS-TuP

Paper AS-TuP23
Characterization of Plasma Source Ion Implanted Stainless Steel for High Voltage Applications

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B2

Session: Topics in Applied Surface Science
Presenter: N.D. Theodore, College of William and Mary
Authors: N.D. Theodore, College of William and Mary
C. Hernandez, Jefferson Lab
D.M. Manos, College of William and Mary
H.F. Dylla, Jefferson Lab
R. Moore, University at Albany Institute for Materials
T. Siggins, Jefferson Lab
Correspondent: Click to Email
Properly modifying the surface of stainless steel to increase efficiency or output power is useful in high voltage electrical pieces seen especially in particle accelerators for research and medicine, high-power radar, DC electron guns, and high power microwave tube and waveguide systems. In this study, highly polished stainless steel test pieces were processed in our integrated PSII/PVD system, which is capable of implanting ions while simultaneously depositing high purity SiO@sub 2@. Previous studies have shown that the suppression of field emission is enhanced in harder, smoother surfaces, and that nitrogen-implanted stainless steel increases surface hardness. Our recent work has shown that the suppression of field emission increases by an order of magnitude in surface-processed samples.@footnote 1@ This study compares the surface character of unprocessed stainless steel with nitrogen-implanted stainless steel and nitrogen-implanted, SiO@sub 2@-deposited stainless steel using electric field microscopy, atomic force microscopy, micro-hardness testing, and Auger electron spectroscopy. The relative effectiveness of various surface-processing methods in reducing field emission will also be discussed. This work supported by the US Dept. of Energy and the Office of Naval Research. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@C. K. Sinclair, et al. "Dramatic Reduction of DC Field Emission From Large Area Electrodes By Plasma Source Ion Implantation." Proceedings of the 2001 Particle Accelerator Conference.