Abstract
This review summarizes the more-than-25-years of development of the so-called thermionic vacuum arc (TVA). TVA is an anodic arc discharge in vapors of the material to be deposited; the energy for its melting is delivered by means of a focused electron beam. The resulting material ions fall at the substrate where they form a well-adhesive layer; the ion energy is controllable. The deposited layers are, as a rule, free from droplets typical for cathodic arc deposition systems and the thermal stress of the substrates being coated is low. TVA is especially suitable for processing refractory metals, e.g., carbon or tungsten, however, in the course of time, various useful applications of this system originated. They include layers for fusion application, hard coatings, low-friction coatings, biomedical-applicable films, materials for optoelectronics, and for solid-state batteries. Apart from the diagnostic of the film properties, also the diagnostic of the TVA discharge itself as well as of the by TVA generated plasma was performed. The research and application of the TVA proceeds in broad international collaboration. At present, the TVA technology has found its firm place among the different procedures for thin film deposition.
Highlights
The vacuum arc is commonly considered as a high-current, low-voltage electrical discharge, which produces a plasma consisting of vaporized and ionized electrode material
The Cu and combination of two magnetic (Co) thin films were grown by the thermionic vacuum arc (TVA) method in this arrangement
Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) and thermodesorption spectroscopy were used for analysis of W:Al and W:Be mixed layers deposited by thermionic vacuum arc (TVA) method
Summary
The vacuum arc is commonly considered as a high-current, low-voltage electrical discharge, which produces a plasma consisting of vaporized and ionized electrode material. The aim of this review is to introduce a versatile nanofabrication method based on plasma entitled thermionic vacuum arc (TVA) This consists of an externally heated cathode surrounded by a Wehnelt cylinder that concentrates by a high voltage accelerated electrons on the anode material. The anode of an arc discharge does not always have to be a passive electron collector but may emit vapor that becomes a plasma; that phenomenon is called the anodic vacuum arc. For the first to apply heated cathode discharge in anode vapors for high-power copper laser construction. Pulsed of operation of a hot-cathode discharge in copper vapors from a melted anode was investigated in ref.
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