The cornucopia of beam applications

Three themes touched upon in this brief review are: a historical perspective of non-semiconductor ion implantation; novel research directions that have evolved from ion beam-based research; and a new way to view the preponderance of techniques to generate beams. Surface modification of materials by ion beams began with ∼100 keV monomer, singly charged ions and over the years expanded to lower energy, higher current, neutral or multiply charged species and higher molecular weights. As a result of the expansion of beam production to very high molecular weight materials, a new way to view the relationship of beams to high technology is discussed.