Design, Fabrication and Characterizations of Metallic Coatings by PVD Methods and Their Applications

A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 4598

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics - INOE 2000, Atomistilor 409, Magurele, Magurele, Romania
Interests: magnetron sputtering; thin film deposition; process control; plasma diagnostics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metallic coatings were among the first applications of the sputtering process. Since their first use in the mid-19th century numerous improvements of the process were made, adding a wide variety of applications to their potential use. This Special Issue intends to gather original and innovative research related to the fabrication processes of metallic coatings and their characterization, related to their potential use for accapplications.  The main processes to be covered are the PVD methods, including but not limited to: evaporation, either by resistive heating or electron beam; sputtering, with all the variants including magnetron, ion assistance, HiPIMS etc; arc vapor deposition; pulsed laser deposition etc. The main classes of applications that can be included are:

Conductive coatings for interconnections or circuit elements

Optical coatings used as: reflectors, band pass filters, thermal control films

Protective and/or decorative coatings

Antibacterial and/or biocompatible coatings

Precision alloying with a metallic component

This Special Issue will cover all aspects from the process design and optimization used a as tool to tune the metallic film properties, characterization of the coatings, in relation to the process parameters and the intended applications, functional testing and characterization of the coatings in real life or simulated conditions.

Dr. Catalin Vitelaru
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • sputtering
  • HiPIMS
  • process optimization
  • metallic coatings
  • conductivity
  • optical properties
  • structural characterization
  • antibacterial coatings
  • biocompatible coatings

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 6941 KiB  
Article
Transparent Silver Coatings with Copper Addition for Improved Conductivity by Combined DCMS and HiPIMS Process
by Catalin Vitelaru, Anca C. Parau, Mihaela Dinu, Iulian Pana, Lidia R. Constantin, Arcadie Sobetkii and Iulian Iordache
Metals 2022, 12(8), 1264; https://doi.org/10.3390/met12081264 - 27 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1590
Abstract
The demand for transparent conductive coatings has increased over recent years, leading to the development of various technical solutions. One of the approaches is to use metallic coatings very close to their coalescence thickness, so that a good compromise between transparency and conductivity [...] Read more.
The demand for transparent conductive coatings has increased over recent years, leading to the development of various technical solutions. One of the approaches is to use metallic coatings very close to their coalescence thickness, so that a good compromise between transparency and conductivity is obtained. In this contribution, a combination of two elements with high potential in this field is used, namely silver and copper. The continuity of silver films on a dielectric transparent substrate is significantly improved by the addition of a copper seed layer that promotes the formation of a continuous layer at smaller effective thicknesses. Two distinct deposition processes are used for the deposition of the two materials, namely HiPIMS (High Power Impulse magnetron sputtering) for copper and DC sputtering for silver. The use of HiPIMS enables a better control of the structure and quantity of deposited material, allowing us to deposit a very small amount of material. The mono-element coatings are characterized from the optical and electrical point of view, and then mixed to form a structure with better transparency, up to 80% in the visible spectrum, good electrical properties, resistivity of ~2 × 10−5 (Ω × cm), and significantly lower surface roughness, down to 0.2 nm. Full article
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12 pages, 4351 KiB  
Article
Optical Properties and Stability of Copper Thin Films for Transparent Thermal Heat Reflectors
by Iulian Pana, Anca C. Parau, Mihaela Dinu, Adrian E. Kiss, Lidia R. Constantin and Catalin Vitelaru
Metals 2022, 12(2), 262; https://doi.org/10.3390/met12020262 - 30 Jan 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2445
Abstract
The use of thin metallic layers at the thickness limit where transparency or spectral selectivity are achieved is gaining increased interest. The use of cheap and abundant materials is desirable in the attempt to avoid environment or economical costs. The use of Cu [...] Read more.
The use of thin metallic layers at the thickness limit where transparency or spectral selectivity are achieved is gaining increased interest. The use of cheap and abundant materials is desirable in the attempt to avoid environment or economical costs. The use of Cu as a replacement for Ag as a heat reflector is one of the solutions that can be employed. The stability over time is a known issue, copper being prone to atmospheric oxidation and degradation. In this contribution, the stability of Cu obtained by magnetron sputtering is investigated, using both DC and HiPIMS processes for obtaining the Cu thin films. The bias voltage is used to obtain thin films with different properties, their time stability being investigated through the variation of spectrophotometric curves. The best performing thin films are evaluated in theoretical heat reflector structures, using SiNx of different qualities as dielectric layers to form the dielectric/metal/dielectric structure. Full article
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