We describe here the design, main parameters, and characteristics of a forevacuum-pressure plasma-cathode electron source based on a hollow-cathode discharge. The source generates a continuous focused electron beam with energy up to 30 keV and current up to 300 mA at a pressure of 10–50 Pa. The focused electron beam reaches a maximum power density of 106 W/cm2. The source utility has been demonstrated by its application for processing and cutting of ceramic.

UHMWPE samples were implanted with metal and metal-gas hybrid ions (Ag, Ag+N, C+H, C+H+Ar, Ti+O ) by using improved MEVVA Ion implantation technique [1,2]. with an extraction voltage of 30 kV and fluence of 1017 ions/cm2 in an attempt to change their surface morphologies in order to understand the effect of ion implantation on the surface properties of UHMWPEs. Characterizations of the implanted samples with RBS , ATR - FTIR, spectra were compared with the un-implanted ones. Implanted and unimplanted samples were also thermally characterized by TGA and DSC. It was generally observed that C-H bond concentration seemed to be decreasing with ion implantation and the results indicated that the chain structure of UHMWPE were changed and crosslink density and polymer crystallinity were increased compared to unimplanted ones resulting in increased hardness. It was also observed that nano size cracks (approx.10nm) were significantly disappeared after Ag implantation, which also has an improved antibacterial effect. Contact angle measurements showed that wettability of samples increased with ion implantation. Results showed that metal and metal+gas hybrid ion implantation could be an effective way to improve the surface properties of UHMWPE to be used in hip and knee prosthesis.