Deposition of boron coatings on surfaces by electron-beam evaporation in forevacuum

Abstract

We implemented the boron coating deposition on the surface by means of electron-beam evaporation of a crystalline pure boron target (99.9%) and ionization of its vapor at a forevacuum pressure (5–15 Pa). The results of studying the characteristics of this process are presented. The space-angular distribution of the substrate temperature and the distribution of deposition rate for different temperatures of the evaporated target, which is determined by the distribution of boron particles in the volume of the vacuum chamber, were obtained. We give the results of measurements of the plasma composition for three stages of thermal processing of the pure boron target: heating, melting, and intense evaporation. Pure boron coatings on titanium samples at different temperatures were synthesized. The effect of the substrate temperature on the morphology and properties of boron coatings was investigated. It was found that boron in coatings is mostly in an amorphous state, while at the coating boundary it forms chemical compounds with titanium, phases of which were determined using X-ray diffraction pattern method. The results of our work may be useful for a wide range of applications that use thin boron films on various surfaces.