Experimental and theoretical investigation of the effects of sample size on copper plasma immersion ion implantation into polyethylene

Polymers are frequently surface modified to achieve special surface characteristics such as antibacterial properties, wear resistance, antioxidation, and good appearance. The application of metal plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) to polymers is of practical interest as PIII offers advantages such as low costs, small instrument footprint, large area, and conformal processing capability. However, the insulating nature of most polymers usually leads to nonuniform plasma implantation and the surface properties can be adversely impacted. Copper is an antibacterial element and our previous experiments have shown that proper introduction of Cu by plasma implantation can significantly enhance the long-term antibacterial properties of polymers. However, lateral variations in the implant fluence and implantation depth across the insulating substrate can lead to inconsistent and irreproducible antibacterial effects. In this work, the influence of the sample size on the chemical and physical properties of copper plasma-implanted polyethylene is studied experimentally and theoretically using Poisson’s equation and plasma sheath theory. Our results indicate that the sample size affects the implant depth profiles. For a large sample, more deposition occurs in the center region, whereas the implantation to deposition ratio shows less variation across the smaller sample. However, the Cu elemental chemical state is not affected by this variation. Our theoretical study discloses that nonuniform metal implantation mainly results from the laterally different surface potential on the insulating materials due to surface charge buildup and more effective charge transfer near the edge of the sample.