Cathodic Arc Deposition of Films

Abstract

Cathodic arc deposition is a plasma-based technology for the fabrication of films. The process can be carried out either at high vacuum or in a low pressure gaseous environment, and films can be formed for example of metals, ceramics, diamondlike carbon, some semiconductors and superconductors, and more. The plasma stream can be filtered to remove microdroplet contamination, and the ion energy can be controlled by substrate bias, thereby transforming the straightforward deposition method into hybrids with other surface modification processes such as ion beam-assisted deposition, ion beam mixing, and ion implantation. The method provides a versatile and powerful plasma tool for the synthesis of novel and technically important surfaces.

Layer formation by resputtering in Ti–Si–C hard coatings during large scale cathodic arc deposition

“…The thickness distribution is a measure of the net plasma flux onto the substrate, in other words, material that has been effectively deposited. The shape of the distribution is consistent with previous reports [15], with a strong angular dependence. The thickness is reduced to 10 % of the on-axis value at about 50° angle to the cathode surface normal.…”

Gold ion implantation into alumina using an “inverted ion source” configuration

“…[7][8][9] Gold plasma was formed using a repetitively pulsed, vacuum arc plasma gun with gold cathode, and injected into a bent-solenoid magnetic filter to remove cathode debris from the plasma stream. This plasma facility has been described previously.…”

Engineering Properties of Superhard Films with Ion Energy and Post-Deposition Processing

“…The process, named Metal Plasma Immersion Ion Implantation and Deposition (MePIIID) has been described in detail elsewhere [10,11,12],. The plasma source was operated in a pulsed mode, with pulse duration between 5 to 50ms.…”