Sputtering in Hanormal Glow Discharge at 800 degrees C of Temperature

The sputtering is inevitable during the surface treatment processes and sintering in the cathode of an abnormal glow discharge, due to the piece surface bombardment by ions and fast neutral species. In this work we study the sputtering in samples of 1020 steel and copper, placed in the cathode of a glow discharge, with argon flow at 800 degrees C temperature at the cathode. The sputtering process was carried out in continuous current and pulsed continuous current, finding a lower sputtering rate in the latter type of signal, reflected in a lesser mass loss from the samples used. It was also found that less power is required in the glow discharge to maintain the same temperature at the discharge cathode, when using pulsed current. By the samples surface optical microscopy analysis, is also observed less homogeneity in the samples surface subjected to abnormal glow discharge in the pulsed current.