This book is designed to serve as a textbook for advanced graduate and postgraduate students enrolled in the physics, engineering physics or material science and engineering course. It covers the fundamental and advanced topics of plasmas and ion beams, plasma ion sources and ion beam extraction from plasmas. It also discusses the interaction of low-energy ion beams derived from plasmas, and their utilization for engineering materials and bringing about novel properties in them. It further discusses the applications of these materials in space, electronic and field emission devices. Various other topics covered in this book are generation of broad and focused low-energy micro-ion beamlets and their control, creation of atomically heterogeneous systems including case studies on modifying electrical, optical and field emission properties of materials. End-of-chapter questions will aid to self-learning among students. The detailed coverage and pedagogical tools make this an ideal textbook for students enrolled in a physics, engineering physics or material science and engineering course. It will also be a good reference book for researchers and professionals in the area of material science and engineering.

Dr Sudeep Bhattacharjee is currently Professor of highest academic grade (HAG) at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Physics from the University of North Bengal, and his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Japan in affiliation with Saitama University, Japan, under a Japanese Government Ministry of Education Science and Culture (Monbusho) Scholarship. His current major research areas are experimental plasma physics involving low temperature plasmas, focused ion beams for generation of nano and quantum beams, and low energy ion matter interactions for creation of atomically heterogeneous systems to bring about novel properties in materials. Dr. Bhattacharjee has published more than 100 refereed journal publications, and has written a book titled “Compact plasma and focused ion beams”. Dr Bhattacharjee has received several awards such as the Buti Foundation Award (2009), India, the Australian Government Endeavour Research Award (2010), the Norwegian Government Specialist Exchange Scholarship (2006). At IIT Kanpur he received the Excellence in Teaching Award (2023) and held the Sanjay and Rachna Pradhan Chair Professorship (2017 – 2020). Dr Bhattacharjee has been a member of the International scientific and organizing committee of prestigious International Conferences in Plasma Physics namely the International Conference on the Phenomena of Ionized Gases (ICPIG), the annual conference of the Association of  Asia Pacific Physical Societies – Division of Plasma Physics (AAPPSDPP), and the International Congress on Plasma Physics (ICPP). Dr Bhattacharjee has been a member of the Editorial Board of distinguished journals in Plasma Physics namely Review of Modern Plasma Physics (Springer), Plasma Research Express (IOP), and Frontiers in Physics, Plasma Physics (Frontiers).