ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION The interest in the ion beam modification of polymers, which was originally motivated by the development of resists for ion beam lithography of submicrometer resolution, increased considerably when a drastic increase in the surface conductivity (by 10-15 orders of magnitude) of normally insulating polymers upon ion beam treatment was revealed. Further studies have shown that ion implantation can also result in fundamental changes in electrical, optical, tribological, and rheological properties of polymers. The ion beam-induced processes in the polymer target turn out to be so peculiar that they are considered within a special division of chemistry involving high energies. This chapter concentrates on the nature of the chemical processes occurring in the polymer host under ion bombardment and in particular on the role of these processes in the modification of electrical and optical properties of the ion-implanted polymers.
