Vacuum arc deposition of Ti coatings

Ti coatings on silicate glass substrates have been produced using a nonfiltered vacuum arc deposition technique. The dependence of the deposition rate and average roughness Ra on the discharge current and distance from the cathode was investigated. The deposition rate decreases monotonically with the distance and increases nonlinearly with the discharge current. Ra also increases with increasing discharge current. Ra decreases with the distance, showing a transition area between the microparticle-containing and microparticle-free Ti films. Ra depends strongly on the number of microparticles. A linear dependence of Ra on the distance was obtained only for substrates far enough from the cathode. For substrates close to the cathode the dependence is governed by the microparticle density. Therefore, the roughness can be changed in a very broad interval by changing the deposition parameters.