Development of shielded cathodic arc deposition with a superconductor shield

In cathodic vacuum arc deposition or arc ion plating, the shielded method provides the easiest way to reduce macrodroplet adhesion in preparing thin films. However, a shield traps not only the macrodroplets toward the substrate but also the plating ions, so that the deposition rate decreases. In order to attain a higher deposition rate in shielded cathodic deposition (SCAD), an improved and enhanced SCAD (IE-SCAD) has been developed in which the cathodic plasma was transported to the substrate by a magnetic field between the cathode and substrate. In the present study, in order to obtain a higher deposition rate, IE-SCAD was further modified by employing a superconductor shield (SC-SCAD). In SC-SCAD, the magnetic field is thought to be diverted from the shield due to the Meissner effect of the superconducting material, and thus the plasma is transported along the magnetic field. The plasma generated from the cathode in SC-SCAD seemed to be effectively transported beyond the superconductor shield with a lower ion loss. The deposition rate of TiN film by SC-SCAD was found to be 1.5 times higher than that by IE-SCAD.