Ion–Solid Interactions

Abstract

Any ion beam modification of materials is the result of interactions between energetic ions and the solid by inter atomic potentials. These interactions manipulate ion ranges and range distributions in the solid, ion stopping processes and anisotropic ion distributions by channeling and collision cascades. On the other hand, these interactions are the basis for ion damage in solids by implantation, sputtering, and mixing processes. The effects caused by interactions between energetic ions and solids are not only the basis for understanding of ion beam materials processing but can also be exploited by a lot of micro- and nano-analytical techniques. Therefore, some important fundamentals of ion--solid interactions will be discussed in this chapter.