Titanium and niobium implantation into α-Al2O3: structural and mechanical properties

Abstract : A comparison of the structural and surface mechanical properties of ~Y-AI~O,~ implanted with titanium and niobium ions w’erc:carried out. For this purpose, single crystal samples were implanted with Ti” kind Nh r ions at IS0 keV with tluences ranging fromIO’” to IO” ion9 cm -’high fluences (l’O’7 For fluences above IO” ions cm ‘, the substitutional fraction of titanium is two times that of niobium. For ions cm ~‘1 the formation of an amorphous layer is evidenced. The different chemical states of atoms in theimplanted layers were determined by X-ray ph~to~i~~tr(~n spectroscopy CXPS1. N~~n(~ind~nt~lti(~n experiments showed that lowfluence irnpl~nt~ti~~ns of titaoium and niobium resulted in the increase of elastic modulus. For high fluenccs the ~~rn~~rph[~ustransformation softens the implanted material and significant decreases of the hardness and Young’s modulus wcrc observed.