Surface Engineering of Tribomaterials with Concentrated Beams of Charged Particles: State-of-Art Approaches and Prospects

Abstract—

The solution of a broad range of research and applied problems of surface engineering of machine-building materials is currently one of the priorities of developing physical material science. This work considers the current state of the research and developments in surface engineering of tribomaterials with beams of charged particles and plasma flows. The main focus is on ion beam processing, vacuum arc deposition, magnetron sputtering, and hybrid ion beam-assisted deposition technologies. The physical basics of the enumerated surface engineering methods are briefly considered, their comparative analysis is made, and their most topical applications and development prospects are determined. A huge amount of empirical material has been accumulated both in the field of process methods of treatment surface engineering and in the materials science of thin surface layers. At the same time, there is a dramatic lack of fundamental ideas in understanding the physicochemical mechanisms responsible for modifications in surface structure and properties, which inevitably leads to the fragmentation of the efforts on the part of researchers and developers.