Preparation of coatings and surface modification by plasma and thermal processes

Abstract

The application of various plasma and ion beam processes for the production of coatings and surface modification of materials, are reviewed. We describe, in particular, cold plasma techniques for the preparation of nitrides, carbides, oxides, bondes and so on and ion implantation techniques for modification of surfaces and interfaces by ion beam mixing to form alloys and chemical compounds on materials. Further, we present our recent collaborative studies on in situ coatings by a dc glow discharge of H 2 + CH 4 gas in torus devices. The carbon coatings deposited on surface probes at liner positions of TEXTOR and JIPPT-IIU are characterized in terms of depth composition profiles, chemical binding states and hydrogen concentration. Properties of these coatings produced by the dc glow discharge are compared with those by an ECR plasma and by a thermal decomposition of hydrocarbons at high temperature. Finally, our recent results on the formation of ceramics by the exposure of Tokamak plasmas and thermal heating will be discussed. TiC layers on a Ti-coated graphite probe and TiB x layers on a B-coated Ti probe were formed after the exposure to the scrape-off layer plasma in JIPPT-IIU, and TiC-TiN double layers on Ti-coated stainless steels were formed by vacuum heating at 600–1000°C.