Contact:
- Rick Russo
- (510) 486-4258
Ion Texturing
Ion texturing is the process of using ion beams to create a texture on the surface of a material. The surface to be textured can be, for example, that of a substrate, a buffer layer, a protective layer or a layer of superconductor material. It can fabricate near-single-crystal surface templates for thin film deposition on inexpensive substrates such as metal and glass. Low-temperature superconducting wire and cable is one such application of ion texturing.
An AET research group was the first in the U. S. to synthesize high-current superconducting thin films on inexpensive metal substrates (1988-1992). It achieved a world record current density at the time (600,000 A/cm2 in 1992).
![Amorphous cubic zirconia film: 2 minutes](images/ion-itex-2min.jpg)
![Amorphous cubic zirconia film: 5 minutes](images/ion-itex-5min.jpg)
![Amorphous cubic zirconia film: 7.5 minutes](images/ion-itex-7-5min.jpg)