High current vacuum-arc ion source for ion implantation and coating deposition technologies

This work is devoted to the development and investigation of a high current ion source based on dc vacuum-arc plasma generation. Extraction and acceleration of ion beams are realized in a repetitively pulsed mode with the pulse repetition rate up to 200 pps, the pulse duration up to 400 mu s, the accelerating voltage up to 40 W, and the pulsed ion-beam current up to 2 A. To remove microparticles from the vacuum-arc plasma a straight-line plasma filter is used. Examples of the source use for realization of high-intensity and high-concentration ion implantation regimes including those with formation of doped layers at depths that exceed ion projective range for more than an order of magnitude are presented. At the expense of change in order and intensity of ion and plasma material treatment, the advantage of application of one source for execution of material surface pretreatment and activation regimes, formation of wide transition layers between the substrate and coating, coating deposition, and high-intensity ion mixing using ions of the same type was shown. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.