Abstract Inert-gas (Ar, Xe) and reactive-gas (O 2 , N 2 ) plasma-source ion-implantation (PSII) treatment of PI, PET, PS–BD, and MPPO surfaces was performed at an ion energy of 30 keV to improve the electrical properties of the polymers. The effect of ion energy, treatment time, rf frequency, and power on the surface resistivity of poly- mer was investigated. Depending on ion energy, dose, and ion species, the surface resistivity of the film was reduced by several orders of magnitude. XPS, TOF–SIMS, and SEM were used to characterize MPPO surfaces treated by Ar-PSII and Xe-PSII. From these measurements it was found that the improvement in surface resistivity after PSII treatment was related to graphite carbon or cross- linked carbon-double-bond species formed on the surface. Keywords Surface analysis · Polymer modification · Plasma-source ion-implantation · XPS · TOF–SIMS Introduction Polymeric materials have numerous applications in many important fields of industry, because of their excellent properties, such as low density, ability to form intricate shapes, versatile electronic properties, chemical inertness, and low cost. The use of polymers is, however, still lim- ited, because of their poor wettability, poor adhesion, in- herent softness, and unexpected dielectric properties. To enhance the surface properties of the polymers a variety of modification techniques have been evaluated [1, 2, 3, 4]. Although ion implantation has long been proven to modify the surface properties of metals, semiconductors, and ceramics, only in recent years has great effort been devoted to the surface modification of polymers by ion implantation. Recent studies have shown that ion implan- tation very effectively improves polymer surface proper- ties such as wettability, surface hardness, wear resistance, and electrical properties [5, 6, 7]. Ion-beam surface-mod- ification involves use of conventional ion implantation and recently developed hybrid plasma-enhanced ion-im- plantation techniques. Whereas conventional ion implan- tation has attracted much attention and achieved great success in the surface modification of materials, plasma- enhanced ion-implantation such as plasma-source ion-im- plantation (PSII) is an emerging technology in the field of surface modification for a variety of materials [8, 9, 10]. Our group has investigated the use of PSII for modifica- tion of polymeric materials [11, 12]. It was found that the PSII process very effectively makes the surface hydrophilic and produces a stable surface layer of modified polymer. Polymer surfaces can also be modified by use of a high-energy ion-beam. High-energy ions are introduced into the polymer structure at high velocity and initiate a large amount of chemical bonding between molecular chains. After treatment by high-energy ion-beam processes the modified polymers have a highly cross-linked three-di- mensionally connected rigid network structure and signif- icantly improved electrical properties, hardness, and resis- tance to wear and chemicals [13, 14]. In this study we have explored improvement of the sur- face resistivity of polymer surfaces by use of PSII. The advantages of PSII for polymer treatment include uniform treatment, stable surface layer of modified polymer, easy control of ion energy, effects of both plasma and ion im- plantation, and intrinsic charge compensation on the sur- face. PSII has been already used to improve the wettabil- ity of the polystyrene surface by use of a variety of treat- ment conditions, e.g. ion species, implantation energy, and ion dose [15]. We have focused on the effect of PSII Yeonhee Lee · Seunghee Han · Hyuneui Lim · Youngwoo Kim · Haidong Kim Surface analysis of polymers electrically improved by plasma-source ion-implantation Anal Bioanal Chem (2002) 373 : 595–600 DOI 10.1007/s00216-002-1374-z Received: 14 February 2002 / Revised: 22 May 2002 / Accepted: 22 May 2002 / Published online: 3 July 2002 SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER Dedicated to Professor David M. Hercules on the occasion of his 70th birthday Y. Lee (✉) · S. Han · H. Lim Advanced Analysis Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136–791, Korea e-mail: yhlee@kist.re.kr Y. Kim Department of Physics, Hanyang University, Ansan, Korea H. Kim Department of Chemistry, Kyunghee University, Seoul 130-701, Korea © Springer-Verlag 002