Study of low energy high dose nitrogen implantation in aluminium, iron, copper and gold

To advance the understanding of fundamental physical and chemical processes occurring in ion bombardment of metals, ion beam nitridation of aluminium, iron, copper and gold is studied in the energy range 2–5 keV, at current densities of 1 and 5 μA cm −2, for each ion energy. The concentration profiles of nitrogen-ion-implanted metals were measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The chemical composition and chemical structure of the implanted metals were also investigated.