摘要 |
An object (14) which is to be implanted with ions is enclosed in a container (12). A plasma (44) is generated in a chamber (26) which is separate from, and opens into the container (12). The plasma diffuses from the chamber (26) into the container (12) to surround the object (14) with uniform density. High voltage negative pulses are applied to the object (14), causing the ions to be accelerated from the plasma (44) toward, and be implanted into, the object (14). Line-of-sight communication between a plasma generation source (30) located in the chamber (26) and the object (14) is blocked, thereby eliminating undesirable effects including heating of the object (14) by the source (30) and transfer of thermally discharged material from the source (30) to the object (14). Two or more chambers (26,34) may be provided for generating independent plasmas (44,46) of different ion species which diffuse into and uniformly mix in the container (12). The attributes of the different plasmas (44,46) may be individually selected and controlled in the respective chambers (26,34).
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