High intensity pulsed ion beam technology was used for the surface irradiation treatment of metallic glass Zr55Al10Cu30Ni5 and W metal. The ion beam was mainly composed of Cn+ (70%) and H+ (30%) at an acceleration voltage of 250 kV under different energy densities for different number of pulses. XRD analysis showed that the metallic glass remained amorphous in its main structure after HIPIB irradiation, without apparent presence of crystalline phases. SEM analysis concluded that there was no apparent irradiation damage on the surface of metallic glass at the low irradiation frequency (3 times and 10 times); "petal"-shaped irradiation damage appeared on the surface of metallic glass after multi-irradiation (100 times and 300 times), and the composition of the petal center included Fe and Cr, the composition of an ion diode cathode, in addition to the composition of Zr-based metallic glass. TEM analysis of irradiated metallic glass showed that a small amount of nanocrystalline Zr2Ni-type phase (face centered cubic) was produced only at 300-time irradiation. Cracks appeared on the surface of W after 100-time and 300-time irradiation; shedding phenomenon even appeared on the surface of W at the energy densities of 1.4 J/cm(2) and 2.0 J/cm(2). The surface nano-hardness of irradiated metallic glass decreased. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.