High Rate Deposition of Nanofunctionalized Transparent Coatings on Metal and Glass Substrates by Hollow Cathode Arc Activated Reactive Evaporation

Metals and float glass have different but excellent and valuable properties making them to be used as wide spread materials in large number of applications. Surface hardness of normal ferritic steel amounts to 1 GPa and stainless steel to 3–4 GPa. There are applications which require higher surface hardness without changing the impression of the metallic surface. There is a demand for higher surface hardness on float glass as well. Transparent oxide layers on large area substrates like metal foils, metal sheets, and glass sheets can be coated by high rate plasma activated deposition technology with high productivity. Application of hollow cathode arc activated deposition (HAD) process with electron beam (EB) evaporation of silicon dioxide and organic modification of layer material results in transparent oxide layers exceeding the hardness of substrate materials. High hardness of the SiOx layer up to 15 GPa exceeds the hardness of bulk amorphous SiO2 (9.3 GPa). X‐Ray diffraction investigations have revealed nanocrystalline Si in the layer.