Evaluation of materials deposited by a novel electrothermal plasma technique

Summary form only given. Plasma based deposition is being adapted in order to be useful in a wider range of applications and to create more sophisticated coatings and surface hardenings. Important in this evolution is the ability to understand the plasma environment so that researchers can develop an understanding of how the plasma parameters, characteristics, and composition determine the materials properties, performance, and structure of the material. This can best be accomplished with a well-characterized source in which the plasma behavior and composition can be related to materials properties. Recent work in materials development has focused on multimaterial coatings and nano-composites. Particular areas of interest for these types of materials include solid lubricants, claddings for nuclear sensors and fuel, and other high functioning coatings for extreme environments. Work has been done recently to combine several component materials into a new material that would function well as it moves between different operating conditions and environments. One of the challenges in this type of work is to combine the fabrication of materials that are usually synthesized by very different methods due to their thermal and chemical properties. Hybrid systems that combine laser ablation, metal electron beam evaporation, and microwave plasmas have been developed. However, the chemical environment in these systems is extraordinarily difficult to understand and characterize via conventional plasma diagnostics, and even harder to model. A new high energy density plasma deposition technique has been proposed in order to investigate the formation of plasmas from mixed materials. The electrothermal segmented plasma source can be used for studies related to surface coatings, surface modification, ion implantation, materials synthesis, and the physics of complex mixed plasmas. The proposed segmented source is a capillary discharge where the ablation liner is made from segments of d- fferent materials instead of a single sleeve. A preliminary study to examine this technique for single and mixed material coatings has been successfully conducted.