Vacuum arc deposition of Ti coatings

Ti coatings on silicate glass substrates have been produced using a nonfilt ered vacuum are deposition technique. The dependence of the deposition rate and average roughness R-a on the discharge current and distance from the c athode was investigated. The deposition rate decreases monotonically with t he distance and increases nonlinearly with the discharge current. R-a also increases with increasing discharge current. R-a decreases with the distanc e, showing a transition area between the microparticle-containing and micro particle-free Ti films. R-a depends strongly on the number of microparticle s. A linear dependence of R-a on the distance was obtained only for substra tes far enough from the cathode. For substrates close to the cathode the de pendence is governed by the microparticle density. Therefore, the roughness can be changed in a very broad interval by changing the deposition paramet ers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.