Activated Reactive Evaporation Process for High Rate Deposition of Compounds

Activated reactive evaporation is a new process developed for the high rate deposition of compounds. It circumvents problems associated with direct evaporation of compounds. Metal vapors from high rate evaporation sources are reacted with a gas in the vapor phase to form and deposit compounds. The vapor phase reaction has to be activated by ionization of the reacting species, i.e., metal vapor and gas in the reaction zone. The steps of compound synthesis and compound deposition are thus separated. Control of deposit stoichiometry, e.g., [C/M] ratio for TiC synthesis is readily achieved by controlling the relative amounts of reactants. Results on the synthesis of carbides, oxides, and nitrides are presented.