Study on smoothing of titanium surface by intense pulsed ion beam irradiation

Smoothing of a pure titanium surface by irradiation of an intense pulsed io n beam (IPIB) with a power density of 76 MW/cm(2) and a pulse width of 65 n s has been studied experimentally and numerically. Surface roughness of the IPIB irradiated titanium reduces to 1/6 of that of the IPIB non-irradiated titanium. A high-frequency component in the envelope of the titanium surfa ce is decreased after IPIB irradiation. These results indicate that the IPI B irradiation leads to surface smoothing of the titanium. From numerical es timation, the temperature of surface region within about 4 mu m exceeds its melting point after 76 MW/cm2 IPIB irradiation. A comparison of the experi mental and the numerical results shows that evaporating or melting of the t arget surface by IPIB irradiation leads to a smooth target surface. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.