THE LASER-ARC - A NEW INDUSTRIAL-TECHNOLOGY FOR EFFECTIVE DEPOSITION OF HARD AMORPHOUS-CARBON FILMS

The laser-arc evaporation process has been developed to an industrial high-rate deposition technology for amorphous carbon films of diamond- like nature. Deposition rates above 3 nm s(-1) have been realized on s ubstrates larger than 100 cm(2) with the quality being comparable with magnetically filtered are techniques characterized by a much lower ef ficiency. The basic process consists of a pulsed cathodic vacuum are i gnited by focused laser pulses. By limiting the are pulse duration bet ween 20 and 100 mu s the are spot erodes only a definite region surrou nding its ignition point, the laser focus. Thus, the local overheating of the cathode material and the emission of microparticles, the inher ent drawback of the conventional are process, are essentially reduced. The are spot position is controlled by the displacement (scanning) of the laser focus on the rotating cylindrical cathode, allowing its sys tematic erosion. With cathodes composed of different materials, multil ayered film structures can be realized with easily changed variations. Owing to the low deposition temperature, below 150 degrees C, the met hod is especially suitable for temperature-sensitive substrate materia ls. Examples for the application of laser-arc coatings in different fi elds are presented.