Short pulse-enhanced vacuum arc evaporation

The paper studies a new method in vacuum-arc deposition technology that can be called short pulse-enhanced vacuum arc evaporation (s-PEVAE). This deposition technique combines sub-microsecond high-current pulsed and direct current operation of the arc-discharge source with the pulse frequency of several kilohertz. The high pulse voltage provides a high growth rate and amplitude of discharge current pulses, i.e., over 109 А/s and 1 kА, respectively. During the s-PEVAE process, the arc discharge power can achieve several hundreds of kilowatts. According to optical and probe measurements performed during the titanium evaporation in argon gas, ionization provided by s-PEVAE is higher than that provided by direct current vacuum arc evaporation (DCVAE). In s-PEVAE, the increase in the average discharge power is accompanied by the growth in the average density of the substrate ion current. At the same time, the deposition rate of the titanium coating decreases. All this leads to a significant change in the ratio between the ions bombarding the substrate and metal atoms forming the coating. Along with the substrate bias voltage, this ratio exerts a strong effect on the structure and properties of the deposited coating and can be controlled by the pulse parameters such as amplitude, time, and frequency. •Short pulse-enhanced vacuum arc evaporation (s-PEVAE) process was studied.•High growth rate (109 А/s) and amplitude (1 kА) of discharge current were obtained.•s-PEVAE process was compared with direct current vacuum arc evaporation (DCVAE).•s-PEVAE provided the higher ionization and ion-to-atom ratio than the DCVAE.