Characteristics of Polymer irradiated by Low energy Ion Beam

Recently, low energy ion beam irradiation has been adopted for surface modification. Low energy ion beam irradiation has many advantages in polymer engineering such as weak damage, good adhesion, noticeably-enhanced wettability(less than 15 degree), good reproducibility and so on. In this experiment, chemical reactions between free radicals and environment gas species have been investigated using angle-resolved XPS and TRIM code. In the case of low ion beam energy (around 1 keV), energy loss in polymer is mainly originated from atomic collisions instead of electronic interference. Atomic collisions could generated displaced atoms and free radicals. Cold cathode-ion source equipped with 5cm convex grid was used in an O2 environment. Base and working pressure were 5$\times$10-6 and 2.3$\times$10-4 Torr. Flow rates of argon and oxygen were fixed at 1.2 and 8 sccm. target materials are polyethylene polyvinyidenefluoride and polytetrafluoroethylene.