Materials processing applications of moderate energy, pulsed electron beams

Summary form only given, as follows. Intense, pulsed electron and ion beams with very high peak power have been available for over two decades, but these devices have generally not been suitable for industrial applications such as materials processing. Such applications generally require repetitively-pulsed beam sources with high average power. A number of potential applications have been identified for pulsed electron and ion beams, but the primary emphasis has been on high energy (/spl ges/1 MeV) and short pulse lengths (/spl les/0.1 /spl mu/sec). This report examines potential applications for pulsed electron beams with lower energies but much longer pulse lengths (/spl ges/1 /spl mu/sec). The applications include thin film deposition, bonding of dissimilar materials, production of fine-grained materials such as nanocrystalline ceramics, and surface modification. Preliminary experimental results illustrating a novel multi-layer bonding process are presented.