J Fusion Energ (2011) 30:126–129 DOI 10.1007/s10894-010-9361-4

1. J Fusion Energ (2011) 30:126–129 DOI 10.1007/s10894-010-9361-4 OR IGINAL RESEARCH Microstructure and Surface Properties of Silver after High Dose Nitrogen Ion Implantation A. H. Sari • A. Akhavan • M. K. Salem Published online: 24 November 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract In this paper the effect of nitrogen ion implantation at the energy of 50 keV and doses in the range between 1017 and 2 9 1018 ions/cm2 on silver surface has been discussed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was used to characterize microstructure of implanted layer. The XRD results confirmed that by such implantation AgN3 has been produced. Silver trinitride with orthorhombic struc- ture was formed on cubic structure of silver surface. RMS roughness of implanted samples have been obtained using atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis and compared with un-implanted sample. Microhardness properties of implanted samples measured by Vickers test. The results show that by increasing the ion dose up to 1 9 1018 ions/ cm2 hardness enhances. Finally, reflection changes at the UV–Vis-NIR region measured by diffuse reflectance accessory of a spectrophotometer. The results of spectro- photometry analysis show reduction in diffused reflection spectrum of nitrogen implanted samples. Keywords Ion implantation Silver Microstructure Introduction Silver is a material with application in many industries. Silver nitride is one of the metal nitride compounds which have been widely studied because of its significant A. H. Sari (&) M. K. Salem Plasma Physics Research Center, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran e-mail: sari@srbiau.ac.ir A. Akhavan Physics Department, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Iran 123 importance in semiconductors and electronic industry. It may be obtained by using different techniques, such as assisted MBE, laser ablation and RF reactive magnetron sputtering. The literatures confirm that produced silver nitride characteristics are strongly dependent on the growing parameters. Another possibility in combination of nitrogen and silver is silver trinitride (azide) formation. It is also called as noble-metal nitrides. In photolithography usually an additional photoresist layer is needed. An alternative method which avoids the resist technology is to use photodecomposition of azide complexes layers [1]. Formation of thin nitride film as well as modifying near surface properties of metals has been intensively studied in last two decades. In this connection, ion implantation is one of the prospective methods for the modification of physical and chemical properties in the near surface region of metals through formation of nitride phases [2–8]. In the case of nitride formation (nitride and trinitride) by ion implantation into silver there are few reports [9–11]. It has been reported that formation of silver trinitride (AgN3) is more difficult by ion implantation technique [11]. The aim of this paper is to investigate the nitrogen ion implantation effect in silver. We are examining the possi- bility of nitride phase formation by high dose nitrogen ion bombardment and its dependency to ion dose. The micro- structure, morphology, hardness and optical reflection vari- ations behavior of modified silver surfaces as a function of ion dose have been studied by different techniques such as XRD, AFM, microhardness and spectrophotometry analysis. Experimental Details Silver plates with purity of 99.9% were cut into 5 different samples at dimension of 15 9 15 9 1 mm3. Before