Joint influence of steered vacuum arc and negative repetitively pulsed bias on titanium macroparticles suppression

This paper presents the results of an experimental study of titanium macroparticle accumulation on a negatively biased substrate immersed in DC vacuum arc plasma generated by an evaporator with an axial magnetic field and a steered arc evaporator. Using a steered arc with a tangential magnetic field strength of 200 Gs reduced the generation of macroparticles 5-fold compared to a plasma source with an axial magnetic field. The application of repetitively pulsed negative bias significantly decreased macroparticle assembly on the substrate surface for both evaporator designs. After 20 min of ion-plasma treatment with negatively pulsed bias (−2 kV, 7 μs, 105 p.p.s.) and steered arc, the observed macroparticle surface density appeared to be 2 orders of magnitude smaller than after vacuum arc plasma deposition at the anode potential using an evaporator with an axial magnetic field. The possibility of high–frequency short–pulse plasma immersion ion implantation by implementing DC vacuum arc plasma is discussed. •A steered arc evaporator provides 5–fold reduction of titanium macroparticles.•Negative substrate biasing significantly suppresses macroparticle accumulation.•Joint use of a steered arc and negative biasing provide 260-fold reduction of macroparticles.•The possibility of low-energy PI3 using a vacuum–arc evaporator is discussed.