plasma probe surveys were conducted in a 30-cm source to verify that the uniformity in the ion beam is the result of a corresponding uniformity in the discharge-chamber plasma. a 15 cm permanent magnet multipole ion source was designed, fabricated, and demonstrated procedures were investigated for texturing a variety of seed and surface materials for controlling secondary electron emission, increasing electron absorption of light, and improved attachment of biological tissue for medical implants using argon and tetrafluoromethane as the working gases. the cross section for argon-argon elastic collisions in the ion-beam energy range was calculated from interaction potentials and permits calculation of beam interaction effects that can determine system pumping requirements. the data also indicate that different optimizations of ion-beam machines will be advantageous for long and short runs, with 1 ma-hr/cm being the rough dividing line for run length. the capacity to simultaneously optimize components in an ion-beam machine for a single application, a capacity that is not evident in competitive approaches such as diode sputtering is emphasized