Ion Beam Deposition of Ceramic-Like Coatings

Abstract

Over the last decade, the deposition of thin and thick films by condensing suprathermal, energetic particles has roused steadily increasing interest. The most convenient way to generate particle fluxes with excess energies in the range from a few eV to some keV is offered by using adequately accelerated ions that can be extracted from external sources or from a plasma sustained inside the deposition chamber. Although ion beam and plasma deposition processes have much in common, the term “ion beam deposition” should be applied only if the work pressure in the deposition chamber is below some 10^-2 Pa. Then the mean free path of the particles is large compared with the usual dimensions, and gas phase interactions may often be neglected. A particular advantage of ion beam techniques is that the process parameters can be controlled rather independently within wide ranges of particle energies and flux densities. ^l–3 On the other hand, it must be emphasized that systematic investigations by ion beam techniques can contribute to optimize high-rate deposition processes, which on a technological scale are performed by plasma ion plating or magnetron sputtering.