Patent 7214280 was granted and assigned to BTU International on May, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods and apparatus are provided for igniting, modulating, and sustaining a plasma for at least partially decrystallizing a surface of an object. In one embodiment, a method is provided for decrystallizing a surface of an object by forming a plasma (such as by subjecting a gas to an amount of electromagnetic radiation, optionally in the presence of a plasma catalyst) and exposing the surface of the object to the plasma.