Formation of Nanosized Coatings in Hybrid Plasma Reactor Combining Magnetron or Arc Deposition with RF Plasma Assistance

Abstract

The hybrid plasma reactor is based on the combined magnetron or arc discharge and radio-frequency inductive discharge located in the external magnetic field. Magnetron or arc discharge provides the generation of atoms and ions of the target materials while the flow of accelerated ions used for the ion assistance is provided by the RF inductive discharge. An external magnetic field is used to optimize the power input to the discharge, to increase the ion current density in the realm of substrate and to enhance the area of uniform plasma. The high value of the ion flow bombarding the substrate gives the possibility to organize the effective ion assistance to the films growth in case of high rate deposition by the arc sources.The deposition of Ti, Al, Si and permalloy films showed that the presence of ion assistance leads to the substantial change of the films structure and properties.