Impact of Ion Beams

Like electrons, ion beams are also playing crucial roles in our lives. These beams with energies ranging from a few hundred keV to a few TeV and currents ranging from a few pico-ampere to a few hundred milli-ampere, are being employed in almost all the areas. Ion beam accelerators like TEVATRON, HERA, SIN, SIS, RHIC, etc., have contributed vastly towards the advancement of our knowledge. Apart from the valuable contributions made towards the basic sciences, ion beams have percolated into the applied fields as well. The industrial, medical, metallurgy and power sectors as well as strategic areas, like defence, are the fields that have been immensely benefited by these beams. Semiconductor industry is among the first ones which has used ion beams extensively. In this case, low energy, high current, heavy ion beams of boron, phosphorous, etc., are implanted in Si, As and Ga to change their physical and electrical properties. The devices thus produced have totally transformed the vacuum tube based electronics industry into a solid state one. This, in turn, has brought in the much needed ruggedness and reliability in this industry. Focused Ion Beams (FIB) are used for tailoring the ICs & Memories. Ion cluster deposition, ion milling, buried conductors, deep amorphous layers and ROM program are some of the other areas where ion beams have made a big mark. Now, MeV beams are C o n t e n t