Unlike ion-beam cleaning, ion assisting is performed not only before, but also in the course of coatings deposition by vacuum evaporation and sputtering methods. For all this, energy of ions is much lower and usually is in the range of 30-300 Ev.

Most wide application of this technology is combination with electron-beam evaporation. It allowed to improve such parameters as adhesion and density of deposited coatings. Besides, since evaporation of oxide materials results in formation of films short of oxygen, process with assistance of oxygen ions allows to control stoichiometry of film structures being formed, and in some cases increase index of refraction of oxide coatings. This also leads to noticeable reduction of absorption, scattering and roughness of films, while hardness and resistance to abrasion increase.