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High-vacuum evaporation
Cathodic sputtering
Ion plating
Ion implantation
Plasma spraying.
Advantages
PVD coatings are sometimes harder and more corrosion resistant than
coatings applied by the electroplating process. Most coatings have high
temperature and good impact strength, excellent abrasion resistance and are
so durable that protective topcoats are almost never necessary.
Ability to utilize virtually any type of inorganic and some organic coating
materials on an equally diverse group of substrates and surfaces using a wide
variety of nishes.
Disadvantages
In Table 1, the chemical categories of the materials that are used for optical
coating are segregated by spectral region; overlap exists between all regions.
Table 2 lists the materials typically used in those spectral regions. These pure
(unmixed) compounds represent selections distilled from dozens of potential
materials according to required thin-lm layer properties such as
transparency, mechanical properties, environmental durability and ease of
deposition.
With the exception of the uoride compounds and lanthanum titanate, these
materials are typically deposited by e-beam evaporation or by sputtering
from targets. Fluoride compounds and many of the oxide compounds can,
alternatively, be evaporated from resistance-heated sources. Because of
chemical, stress and process incompatibilities, layers from the oxide and
uoride chemical classes are generally not combined in a coating. The
exception is with UV coatings where layers are thin and the material selection
of transparent materials is small. Multicomponent materials have been
developed to achieve improvements in one or more thin-lm layer properties
over the single-element precursor. Examples are doped uorides and oxides
and mixtures of two or more similar materials. Mixed and doped starting
materials can be obtained, or modications can be accomplished during
evaporation or sputtering from separate sources of materials. Layers of
uorides and suldes (selenides) are combined in LWIR coatings.
Materials selections: The materials that will be used in the design are
selected according to the spectral criteria of Tables 1 and 2, as well as
durability requirements and deposition process. Coating materials are
preprocessed and formed to provide controlled vaporization behavior and to
insure that the physical and optical properties of the deposited lm are
consistent from run to run. The optimum lm composition, physical structure,
and the vaporization behavior throughout the deposition process are strongly
dependent on the preparation of the starting material. Furthermore, the
different chemical compositions outlined in Table 1 and the specic
compounds listed in Table 2 require individual preparations and forms. More
detailed discussions are available on the CERAC Web site.1
Referring to the tables, we see that the low-index oxide common to all oxide
coating combinations is SiO2. The companion high-index materials for visible
through SW wavelengths are titania or tantala. A successful replacement for
tantala, Ta2O5, is lanthanum titanate LaTiO3. As prepared, this material is
actually a complex chemical compound. Compared to pure tantala, LaTiO3
has the desirable properties of requiring lower evaporation temperature
producing denser lm layers of lower stress with nearly the same index. Its IR
transparency extends to ~8 m.
Some oxide compounds, and all uoride compounds, melt before reaching
evaporation temperature; others, such as silica, alumina and refractory oxide
compounds (hafnia and zirconia), evaporate from a fused vitreous surface or
sublimate (SiO). If the material retains its granular form rather than forming a
melt, heat transfer among the grains or pieces is inefficient, and the
concentration of heat at sharp boundaries such as dust, voids or trapped
water sites can result in the explosive emanation of particles and pressure
bursts. Extended preconditioning with a sweeping electron beam can reduce
these problems.
Avoiding problems: Particulate showering and spatter and pressure bursts
are common problems encountered when evaporating oxide compounds.
When the starting material is not properly preconditioned or is of
nonoptimum composition, particle emanation can range in intensity from
occasional bursts to continuous showering. Particles ranging in size from
nanometer to multiple-micrometer can be embedded in the layer and cause
light scatter or voids (pinholes) when removed by abrasion. Particulates are
often the initiation sites for laser damage and water penetration, and that
failure mechanism is as important as absorption in the lm in limiting the
damage threshold. Included particulates become points of mechanical stress
concentration and initiation sites for failures such as crazing and cracking.
With underdense starting materials, pressure variation from the release of
trapped gases during lm layer growth can contribute to inhomogeneity of
optical properties as well as upsetting the crystal monitor.
Film density can increase to near bulklike values by increasing the growth
energy of the adatoms or by changing the material composition to discourage
singular growth dynamics. In preference to resorting to very high substrate
temperatures to eliminate optical and mechanical instabilities, IAD is used to
apply high energy to the lm. In this technique, ions of oxygen and argon
impact the growing lm transferring high kinetic energies, ~100s eV. Greater
surface mobility and high momentum transfer result in high packing density.
The low-index components for MWIR to LWIR coatings, ZnS and ZnSe, sublime
and dissociate when evaporated. The starting materials are produced in a
CVD process from the reaction of gases. The condensed solids are crushed
and sized or pressed into desired working shapes. If substrate surface and
chamber atmosphere conditions are favorable, the dissociated components
will recombine with correct chemical composition at the substrate and
produce nonabsorbing dense lms. While e-beam is a useable evaporation
technique, a heated baffled box source is preferred because in the nearly
isothermal evaporation environment created, there are fewer hot spots that
can produce unrecoverable composition deviations.
Metals: Metal oxide and nitride compounds for optical applications can be
deposited by admitting the appropriate reactive gas to the sputtering plasma.
Similarly, metal carbide and boride compounds used in tribological coatings
can be sputter deposited. High deposition rates are achieved by DC
magnetron sputtering. Aluminum, gold and silver can be thermally or e-beam
evaporated.