Temperature conditions during arc discharge plasma deposition of titanium nitride

Abstract

Temperature measurements of the probes of different masses placed in an arc discharge plasma were performed in situ using an electron circuit allowing one to control the sample temperature during the plasma action or just after the plasma had been turned off. The heat transfer of the substrate due to heat conductivity was minimized, and the black-body radiation model was used to describe the experimental results. The proposed model describes the kinetics of the sample heating in the plasma from the initial state to the near-stationary state of the sample thermal regime. The stationary (highest possible) probe temperatures were defined for negative and positive bias voltages in different positions of the arc discharge plasma. The critical values of cathode-object distance (0.2 m) and negative bias voltage (−700 V) allowing simple analysis of the experimental results (for a fixed arc discharge power) were defined.