Vacuum arc on the polycrystalline silica cathode

Abstract

Thin films of silica and its compounds are used in modern technology to produce Li-ion batteries, wear-resistant and protective coatings, thin-films insulators, etc. This coating is produced with CVD methods, with magnetron sputtering systems or with electron-beam evaporation. The vacuum arc evaporation method, presently, is not used. The paper demonstrates a possibility for a long-term operation of vacuum arc evaporator with polycrystalline silica-aluminum alloy (90% of silica) cathode and with magnetic system to create a variable form of arch-like magnetic field on the cathode surface. It was shown that archlike configuration of magnetic field provides a stable discharge and uniform cathode spots moving with the velocities up to 5 m/s with magnetic fields induction about 10 mT. Thus, there is no local melting of the cathode, and this provides its long-term work without chips, cracks and destruction. Cathodes spots move over the cathode surface leaving t big craters with melted edges on its surface. The craters size was 150-450μm. The cathode spot movement character and the craters on the cathode surface were like the spots movement, when working on the copper or aluminum cathodes. With the magnetic field induction less than 1 mT, the cathode spots movement was the same as that of on the silica mono-crystal without magnetic field. Thus, the discharge volt-ampere characteristics for different values of magnetic fields were obtained. Voltampere characteristics were increasing and were shifted to the higher voltage with increasing magnetic field. The voltage was 18.7-26.5 V for the arc current 30-140 A. So, it was confirmed that vacuum arc evaporation method could be used for effective evaporation of silica and silica-based alloys and for thin films deposition of this materials.