• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.241-246
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• 2001

Single or dual ion implantations were performed onto the transparent polyethylene terephthalate(PET) sheet, and the surface hardness and the light transmittance in the visual-UV range were examined. Nanoindentation showed that the surface hardness was the highest at about 50 nm depth from the surface and was increased by about 3 times when nitrogen ions were implanted with energy and dose of 90 keV and $1\times10^{15}\textrm{/cm}^2$ respectively. When dual ions such as He+N and N+C ions were implanted into PET, the hardness was increased even more than the case only N ions were implanted. Especially, when PET were implanted with N+C dual ions, the surface hardness of PET increased 5 times more as compared to when implanted with N ions alone. The light at the 550 nm wavelength(visual range) transmitted more than 85%, which is close to that of as-received PET, and at the wavelength below 300 nm(UV range) the rays were absorbed more than 95% as traveling through the sheet. implying that there are processing parameters which the ion implanted PET maintains the transparency and absorbs the UV rays. It can be considered that the increase in the hardness of polymeric materials is attributed to not only cross linking but also forming hard inclusions such as hard C-N compounds, as evidenced by the formation of the highest hardness when both N and C ions are implanted onto PET.