Vacuum arc deposition as a complementary technology to laser processing

Vacuum arc deposition unifies the advantages of laser ablation and magnetron sputtering. The evaporation of the target in the arc discharge permits to deposit the refractory materials with a high rate. The evaporation products are highly ionized and the possibility exists to control the discharge with a magnetic field. The deposition rate, Rd, of Mo films produced by vacuum arc deposition on Cu and silica glass substrates has been studied. The target of purified Mo has been made by high-vacuum electron beam melting. Rd depends critically on the angle between the substrate and the cathode surfaces being maximal when they are parallel. The adhesion of the Mo coating to Cu is much higher than to silica glass substrate. Rd as high as 15 nm/s has been reached. Rd increases with increasing deposition power. It decreases with increasing distance from the cathode slower than in the case of magnetron sputtering. The microparticles forming by the vacuum arc evaporation incorporate in the layer during the deposition procedure increasing the deposition rate

Morphology of Mo particles and their incorporation into the growing film during vacuum arc deposition

Vacuum arc deposition opens the possibility to alter the surface of the substrate and growing film with the aid of a combined flux of multiply charged ions and microparticles. This plasma flux meets the substrate with a supersonic velocity. Therefore, the result of the interaction between the plasma and substrate, for instance the morphology of the microparticles sticking to the substrate, depends strongly on the angle between the substrate and cathode surfaces. Mo layers have been deposited on Cu and silica glass substrates by vacuum arc deposition. The targets of high-purity Mo have been produced by high-vacuum electron-beam multiple melting in specially designed water-cooled copper molds. The morphology of the microparticles on the film surface is investigated by means of quantitative metallography. A strong influence of the substrate position on the plasma flow is observed. The distributions of particle sizes, aspect ratios and angles between the axes of the cathode and elliptic particles have been studied as functions of the deposition time, current and distance from the cathode. While increasing the deposition time particles were continuously incorporated into the film disappearing from the surface