Formation of microcraters and hierarchically-organized surface structures in TiNi shape memory alloy irradiated with a low-energy, high-current electron beam

The regularities of surface cratering in TiNi alloy irradiated with a low-energy, high-current electron beam (LEHCEB) in dependence on energy density and number of pulses are studied. LEHCEB processing of TiNi samples was carried out using RITM-SP facility. Energy density Es was varied from 1 to 5 J/cm2, pulse duration was 2.5–3.0 μs, the number of pulses n = 1–128. The dominant role of non-metallic inclusions [mainly, TiC(O)] in the nucleation of microcraters was found. It was revealed that at small number of pulses (n = 2), an increase in energy density leads both to increasing average diameter and density of microcraters. An increase in the number of pulses leads to a monotonic decrease in density of microcraters, and, therefore, that of the proportion of the area occupied by microcraters, as well as a decrease in the surface roughness. The multiple LEHCEB melting of TiNi alloy in crater-free modes enables to form quasi-periodical, hierarchically-organized microsized surface structures.