Discharge with a self-heated hollow cathode and a vaporizable anode in an inhomogeneous magnetic field

摘要

This work is devoted to studying the conditions of the stable burning of discharge with self-heated hollow cathode and anode placed in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. Such a discharge generates dense plasma in Ar-OSUB2/SUB mixture, and compression of the discharge column by magnetic field allows efficient evaporation of the anode material. A new method of deposition of oxide coatings through reactive anode evaporation was implemented in such a system. The rate of this process, unlike the reactive magnetron sputtering, is not limited by the low-rate sputtering of oxidized target. In addition, this method provides intense ion bombardment of a coating surface. The terms of suppression of ion-sound oscillations have been determined, and a stable burning of discharge with current up to 40 A at a pressure of Ar-OSUB2/SUB mixtures 0.1 Pa has been achieved. The results of the probe diagnostic of discharge plasma parameters are presented. Nanocrystalline AlSUB2/SUBOSUB3/SUB coatings have been deposited in the studied system on the area of 300-600 cmSUP2/SUP with rate 2-5 μm/h at temperatures of 400-600SUP°/SUPC.