https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/s10053-025-01002-0
Topical Review - Clusters and Nanostructures
A review of material surface processing utilizing gas cluster ion beam technology
1
School of Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, 201620, Shanghai, China
2
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, 201620, Shanghai, China
Received:
22
February
2025
Accepted:
11
April
2025
Published online:
11
May
2025
Gas clusters are known as unique targets in the field of intense laser pulse interactions with matter. Recently, gas cluster ion beams (GCIBs), produced by ionizing and accelerating gas clusters, have been employed to bombard the material surface. They exhibit remarkable material surface flattening effects due to the low charge-to-mass ratio of cluster ions. GCIB technology has attracted increasing interest and demonstrated a wide range of applications in various material surface processing techniques, owing to its low-damage and shallow-injection characteristics. However, there are relatively few studies summarizing the surface processing of GCIB technology. With this background, this review aims to summarize the generation of GCIBs, the interaction mechanism between GCIBs and materials, and their primary applications in material surface processing. The applications of GCIBs are extensively covered, including surface flattening, nanostructure fabrication, material surface analysis with other techniques such as secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and so on. Furthermore, some commercially available GCIB devices are introduced. Finally, the review concludes with a discussion of the current state of GCIB technology development and future perspectives.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
