A method of depositing indium oxide or indium tin oxide thin film on a polymer substrate is disclosed. In the method, oxygen or argon ion beam is radiated on a polymer substrate by a constant accelerating energy in a vacuum state to modify the surface of the polymer substrate, on which an IO thin film or an ITO thin film is deposited while oxygen ion beam, argon ion beam or their mixture ion beam is being radiated in a vacuum state. In addition, ion beam is generated from a cold cathode ion source by using argon, oxygen or their mixture gas and sputtered at a target substance composed of In.sub.2 O.sub.3 or In.sub.2 O.sub.3 and SnO.sub.2, thereby an IO or an ITO thin film can be deposited on the surface-modified polymer substrate.

An oxide (NiO, CoO, NiCoO) antiferromagnetic exchange bias layer produced by ion beam sputtering of an oxide target in pure argon (Ar) sputtering gas, with no oxygen gas introduced into the system. Antiferromagnetic oxide layers are used, for example, in magnetoresistive readback heads to shift the hysteresis loops of ferromagnetic films away from the zero field axis. For example, NiO exchange bia layers have been fabricated using ion beam sputtering of an NiO target using Ar ions, with the substrate temperature at 200.degree. C., the ion beam voltage at 1000V and the beam current at 20 mA, with a deposition rate of about 0.2 .ANG./sec. The resulting NiO film was amorphous.

A technique is described for improving metal-organic substrate adhesion and for reducing stress between the metal film and the substrate. Low energy reactive ions, electrons, or photons are incident upon the substrate to alter the surface chemistry of the substrate to a depth of from about 10 angstroms to a few hundred angstroms. The energy of the incident reactive ions and electrons is about 50-2000 eV, while the energy of the incident photons is about 0.2-500 eV. Irradiation of the substrate can occur prior to or during metal deposition. For simultaneous metal deposition/particle irradiation, the arrival rates of the metal atoms and the substrate treatment particles are within a few order of magnitude of one another. Room temperatures or elevated temperatures are suitable.

The wear life of a high-speed tool steel cutting bit is increased by (a) cleansing the bit by subjection to an ion beam; (b) while preventing the temperature of said cleansed from rising above 350.degree. C., coating the cleansed bit by condensing sputtered atoms of titanium and boron thereonto, the condensation being carried out to provide a coating thickness of 2-6 microns. An argon or krypton beam of ions is accelerated to 1300-1800 volts as a broad-beam ion source to sputter a titanium diboride target arranged as a cathode. The sputtering is carried out for 5-10 minutes while the bit is heated to about 200.degree. C. and a soft vacuum of about 4-6 milli-torr is used during the process.

Disclosed herein is a coated substrate and a process for forming films on substrates and for providing a particularly smooth film on a substrate. The method of this invention involves subjecting a surface of a substrate to contact with a stream of ions of an inert gas having sufficient force and energy to substantially change the surface characteristics of said substrate, and then exposing a film-forming material to a stream of ions of an inert gas having sufficient energy to vaporize the atoms of said film-forming material and to transmit the vaporized atoms to the substrate surface with sufficient force to form a film bonded to the substrate. This process is particularly useful commercially because it forms strong bonds at room temperature. This invention is particularly useful for adhering a gold film to diamond and forming ohmic electrodes on diamond, but also can be used to bond other films to substrates.