SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VACUUM DEPOSITION OF THIN FILMS

A substrate holder (41) is mounted within the vacuum chamber (29) for carrying at least one substrate; an electrically conductive crucible (30) is positioned within said vacuum chamber and is electrically insulated therefrom but has a low electrical resistance connection therebetween. The crucible is adapted to contain a preselected material for evaporation onto a substrate on the substrate holder. A high voltage electron beam source is positioned within said vacuum chamber in the vicinity of said crucible and includes a high voltage electron gun (31) and a deflection magnet system (53) arranged for bending electrons from said gun into said crucible for evaporating the preselected material therein, the magnet system forms a magnet field of prearranged characterisitics in the region above said crucible. A low voltage, high current plasma source (32), including a separate plasma generating chamber (35) is positioned relative to said vacuum chamber (29) to produce an intense first plasma of a selected activation gas species in said plasma generating chamber for injection into said vacuum chamber. The plasma source is positioned at any convenient location relative to the crucible and the electron beam source and is electrically interconnected with the crucible for current flow therebetween. The plasma source fills the vacuum chamber with a generally distributed plasma (36). The distributed plasma coacts with a magnetic field above said crucible and evaporant material leaving the crucible to form an intense second plasma in the region above said crucible, thereby activating the evaporant material passing through the region toward the substrate to produce a vacuum deposited thin film having improved thin film characteristics.