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The structure and the phase composition of the diffusion saturation zone of 40Crand 12Cr2Ni4N-type steels subjected to nitriding in the plasma of a low-pressure gas discharge have been studied by the methods of optical, scanning, and diffraction electron microscopy. An essential potentialities have been revealed to nitride steel at low (∼200 °С) temperatures. The structural-phase state of the nitrided layer has been shown to depend strongly on the morphology and phase composition of the initial material.

Inner surface coating for tubular samples was realized by the grid enhanced plasma source ion implantation (GEPSII) method. In the GEPSII system, two electrodes, a central rod electrode and a coaxial grid electrode were coaxially assembled inside the tube. Plasma was generated between the electrodes by a radio-frequency (RF) oscillating power source. Plasma then diffused through the grid and realized inner surface ion implantation by a negative high voltage applied to the tube. The plasma was then divided, by the grid, into two regions, namely the source plasma region and the diffused plasma region. The plasma's self-bias between two RF power source electrodes was measured. At the same time, the electron temperature and plasma density in the GEPSII system were measured by a scattering spectrometer. Results showed that the plasma properties of the two regions were entirely different; the plasma self-bias, which might greatly affect the sputtering rate of the central titanium electrode, depended on the electrode structure, gas pressure and RF power.

A cold dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma plume with one highly conductive liquid electrode has been developed to treat thermally sensitive materials, and its preliminary discharging characteristics have been studied. The averaged electron temperature and density is estimated to be 0.6eV and 1011/cm3, respectively. The length of plasma plume can reach 5 cm with helium gas (He), and the conductivity of the outer electrode affects the plume length obviously. This plasma plume could be touched by bare hand without causing any burning or painful sensation, which may provide potential application for safe aseptic skin care. Moreover, the oxidative particles (e.g., OH, O*, O3) in the downstream oxygen (O2) gas of the plume have been applied to treat the landfill leachate. The results show that the activated O2 gas can degrade the landfill leachate effectively, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD), conductivity, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and suspended solid (SS) can be decreased by 52%, 57%, 76% and 92%, respectively.

Ti–Si–N thin films with different silicon contents are deposited by a cathodic arc technique in an Ar+N2 +SiH4 mixture atmosphere. With the increase of silane Bow rate, the content of silicon in the Ti–Si–N films varies from 2.0 at. % to 12.2 at. %. Meanwhile, the cross-sectional morphology of these films changes from an apparent columnar microstructure to a dense fine-grained structure. The x-ray diffractometer (XRD) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that the Ti–Si–N film consists of TiN crystallites and SiNx amorphous phase. The corrosion resistance is improved with the increase of silane Bow rate. Growth defects in the films produced play a key role in the corrosion process, especially for the local corrosion. The porosity of the films decreases from 0.13% to 0.00032% by introducing silane at the Bow rate of 14sccm.

Under optimized operating parameters, a hard and wear resistant ( Ti,Al)N film is prepared on a normalized T8 carbon tool steel substrate by using pulsed high energy density plasma technique. Microstructure and composition of the film are analysed by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Hardness profile and tribological properties of the film are tested with nano-indenter and ring-on-ring wear tester, respectively. The tested results show that the microstructure of the film is dense and uniform and is mainly composed of ( Ti,Al)N and AlN hard phases. A wide transition interface exists between the film and the normalized T8 carbon tool steel substrate. Thickness of the film is about 1000 nm and mean hardness value of the film is about 26GPa. Under dry sliding wear test conditions, relative wear resistance of the ( Ti,Al)N film is approximately 9 times higher than that of the hardened T8 carbon tool steel reference sample. Meanwhile, the ( Ti,Al)N film has low and stable friction coefficient compared with the hardened T8 carbon tool steel reference sample.

Zirconium oxide (ZrO2) thin films are deposited at room temperature by cathodic arc at substrate biases of 0 V, -60 V and -120 V, respectively. The crystal structure, composition, morphology, and deposition rate of the as-deposited thin films are systematically investigated by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) as well as scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the crystal structure, morphology and deposition rate of the films all are dependant on substrate bias. With the increase of bias voltage from 0 V to -120 V, the zirconium oxide thin film grown on silicon wafer first exhibits monoclinic lattice and tetragonal lattice, further evolves monoclinic phase with the preferred orientation along the (-111) and (-222) directions at -60 V and finally along nearly one observed preferred (002) direction under -120 V. In addition, the variations of morphology with bias voltage are correlated to changes of the film structure. The results of XPS demonstrate that Zr elements are almost oxidized completely in the films achieved under -120 V bias.

Tantalum nitride (TaN) thin films are achieved on Si(111) and SS317L substrates by cathodic vacuum arc technique, which is rarely reported in the literature. The crystal structure, composition and surface morphology of the films are characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), auger electron spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy, respectively. The influence of substrate negative bias on crystal structure, composition, surface morphology of the TaN films is systematically studied. At the substrate bias of 0 V and -50 V, the amorphous TaN film is obtained. As the bias increases to -100 V, cubic TaN phase can be found. Stoichiometric TaN with hexagonal lattice preferred (300) orientation is prepared at a bias of -200 V. Combine the XRD and XPS results, the binding energy value of 23.6 eV of Ta 4f7/2 is contributed to hexagonal TaN. Compared to other techniques, TaN thin films fabricated by cathodic vacuum arc at various substrate biases show different microstructures.

A new method named the magnetic glow-arc plasma source ion implantation (MGA-PSII) is proposed for inner surface modification of tubes. In MGA-PSII, under the control of an axial magnetic field, which is generated by an electric coil around the tube sample, glow arc plasma moves spirally into the tube from its two ends. A negative voltage applied on the tube realized its inner surface implantation. Titanium nitride (TiN) films are prepared on the inner surface of a stainless steel tube in diameter 90 mm and length 600 mm. Hardness tests show that the hardness at the tube centre is up to 20 GPa. XRD, XPS and AES analyses demonstrate that good quality of TiN films can be achieved.

A super hard and wear resistant WC film is in-situ prepared on a 0.45% C steel substrate by pulsed high energy density plasma technique at ambient temperature. The microstructure and composition of the film are analysed by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The hardness profile and tribological behaviour of the film are determined with nano-indenter and wear tester, respectively. The results show that the microstructure of the film was dense and uniform and mainly composed of WC and a small amount of W2C. A wide mixing interface exists between the film and the 0.45% C steel substrate. The thickness of the film is about 2 mu m. The hardness and Yang's modulus of the film are very high. The film has excellent wear resistance and low friction coefficient under dry sliding wear test conditions.

An atmospheric pressure plasma fluidized bed (APPFB) is designed to generate plasma using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) with one liquid electrode. In the APPFB system, the physical properties of DBD discharge and its application in plant-seed mutating are studied fundamentally. The results show that the generated plasma is a typical glow discharge free from filament and arc plasma, and the macro-temperature of the plasma fluidized bed is nearly at room temperature. There are no obvious changes in the pimientos when their seeds are treated by APPFB, but great changes are found for coxcombs.

Grid-enhanced plasma source ion implantation (GEPSII) is a newly proposed technique to modify the inner-surface properties of a cylindrical bore. In this paper, a two-ion fluid model describing nitrogen molecular ions N2+ and atomic ions N+ is used to investigate the ion sheath dynamics between the grid electrode and the inner surface of a cylindrical bore during the GEPSII process, which is an extension of our previous calculations in which only N2+ was considered. Calculations are concentrated on the results of ion dose and impact energy on the target for different ion species ratios in the core plasma. The calculated results show that more atomic ions N+ in the core plasma can raise the ion impact energy and reduce the ion dose on the target.

In this paper, the structures, optical and mechanical properties of diamond-like carbon films are studied, which are prepared by a self-fabricated electron cyclotron resonance microwave plasma chemical vapour deposition method at room temperature in the ambient gases of mixed acetylene and nitrogen. The morphology and microstructure of the processed film are characterized by the atomic force microscope image, Raman spectra and middle Fourier transform infrared transmittance spectra, which reveal that there is an intertwisted fibrillar diamond-like structure in the film and the film is mainly composed of sp3 CH, sp3 C - C, sp2 C==C, C==N and C60. The film micro-hardness and bulk modulus are measured by a nano-indenter and the refractive constant and deposition rate are also calculated.

The structure and phase transition of a two-dimensional (2D) dusty plasma have been investigated in detail by molecular dynamics simulation. Pair correlation function, static structure factor, mean square displacement and bond angle correlation function have been calculated to characterize the structural properties. The variation of internal energy, shear modulus, particle trajectories and structural properties with temperature has been monitored to study the phase transition of the 2D dusty plasma system. The simulation results are in favour of a two-step continuous transition for this kind of plasma.

Nano-crystalline diamond films have been prepared on glass substrate in argon and methane environments by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. The suitable processing parameters are methane concentration 3% in argon; total deposition pressure 13.3 kPa; substrate temperature 500°C heated by plasma. In this film, the grain size is