The results of the study of morphological changes in the carbon fibers surface of "Kulon" based on PAN fiber and of carbon textile Busofit under irradiation with helium ions with energies of the order of hundreds of electron volts are presented. Scanning electron microscopy showed a significant ion-induced change in the morphology from the smooth fiber surface to a developed surface with the corrugations, nanowalls and whiskers of submicron height.

SEM, laser goniophotometry, and Raman spectroscopy are used to analyze a modification of the carbon PAN fiber shell of KUP-VM composite upon irradiation with 30 keV Ne+ and Ar+ ions at normal incidence and temperatures of RT to 600°C. It is found that the formation of corrugated submicron structures in the composite upon irradiation at elevated temperatures (≥125°C for neon and ≥250°C for argon) displays certain features at temperatures of 400–500°C. The corrugated faces’ angles of inclination and the fraction of the corrugated structure on the fiber surface at these temperatures are minimal. Together with regularities established earlier, the observed patterns allow us to relate ion-induced corrugation to anisotropic radiation- induced plastic processes of dimensional changes in carbon materials affected by ion sputtering of their surfaces.

The results of experimental investigation of the surface layer of polycrystalline diamond modified by high-fluence (≥1018 cm–2) 30-keV Ar+ ion irradiation are presented. The reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns, Raman spectra, and temperature dependences of the electrical resistance are analyzed. It is found that depending on the irradiation conditions and temperature treatment of diamond a modified layer is formed with either a disorderd structure and semiconductor conductivity or the graphite structure and metallic conductivity.

The regularities of ion-induced corrugation of a VMN-4 carbon-fiber shell of the KUP-VM unidirectional composite under high-fluence irradiation with Ar + ions at energies of 20 and 30 keV have been experimentally studied in the range from room temperature to 600°C. A developed submicron corrugated structure of the carbon fiber surface at an ion path length of 20–40 nm in graphite is registered starting from temperatures around 200°C. The corrugation period is a few hundred nanometers, weakly depends on the temperature of the irradiated carbon fiber, and decreases with a decrease in the ion energy or an increase in the incidence angle of the ion beam on the cylindrical fiber surface. The temperature of an irradiated fiber has a strong effect on the geometry and the fraction of corrugations in the fiber surface part irradiated with ions at normal incidence. For an ion energy of 20 keV in the temperature range of 350–500°C, the apical part of the fiber is similar to the initial surface. A stronger effect of corrugation reduction for an argon-ion beam energy of 20 keV in comparison with an irradiation energy of 30 keV is explained by the competition between the processes of ion-induced corrugation under plastic deformation of the modified layer and the surface erosion at sputtering, which leads to the smoothing of the surface.

The experimental results of ion-induced crimping of the high-modulus carbon PAN-fibers using nitrogen, neon and argon ions with energies of tens keV are presented. Ion-induced surface nanostructuring of the formed crimps provides more than a hundredfold increase in the specific surface area of the fiber and its shrinkage that retains in thermal processes in the production of composites.

To analyze the process of the ion-induced graphitization of a polycrystalline diamond, the surfacelayer conductivity and microstructure are studied experimentally after high-fluence irradiation with Ne+, Ar+, N+, and ions with energies of 20–30 keV at irradiation and heat-treatment temperatures ranging from 30 to 720°R in vacuum. After irradiation with argon ions at room temperature and subsequent heat treatment, the resistivity ϱ of a modified layer decreases exponentially with increasing treatment temperature T ht and reaches the graphite value ϱ at Tht = 700°R. Such a temperature T ht is insufficient for surface-layer graphitization by nitrogen ions. The increase in the diamond temperature under irradiation leads to a decrease in the ion-induced thermal graphitization temperature T g by several hundred degrees. It is found that the temperature T g is almost coincident with the corresponding temperature Ta of the dynamic annealing of radiation-induced damage in graphite. Analysis of the irradiated layer using Raman spectroscopy reveals the heterogeneous structure of the modified layer containing graphite and amorphous phases, the ratio between which correlates with the layer resistivity. Under argon-ion irradiation at diamond temperatures of 500°R or more, an increase in ϱ of the irradiated layer is observed, which is related to the formation of nanocrystalline graphite. This effect is not observed under nitrogen-ion irradiation.

The modification of (111) face of synthetic diamond has been studied experimentally for high-fluence 30 keV argon bombardment. It has been found that ion irradiation leads to the electrically conductive layer formation the sheet resistance of which decreases more than 100 times while changing the temperature of the irradiated diamond from 70 to 400 oC. This effect, as well as significant changes of optical transmittance after ion irradiation are associated with ion-induced structural changes of irradiated diamond obtained by the methods of Raman spectroscopy.

Coatings prepared by the microarc oxidation (MAO) of aluminum alloys AMg-3 and V-95 with subsequent filling with poly-p-xylylene by vapor-phase polymerization on a surface are studied. It is found that filling with the polymer makes it possible to reduce the through porosity of MAO coatings by a factor of more than 5. It is shown that nuclear backscattering spectrometry with 7.5 MeV protons is an efficient and nondestructive method for measuring the composition and thickness of layered ceramic-polymer coatings.