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Is it possible deposit SiO2 by PVD cathodic arc?

Is it possible to deposit SiO2 film by PVD cathodic arc? If yes, please let me know more information in this issue.

David Koo
- China
2003

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No. SiO2 is an insulator. You can only arc electrical conductors.

Jim Treglio - scwineryreview.com
PVD Consultant & Wine Lover - San Diego,
California
2003

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I believe that it is possible to use cathodic arc evaporation to deposit SiO2 coatings. You need to use a Si target and add oxygen into the chamber (it should be a reactive mode). The problem is that with arc the coating has lot of defects at the surface due to droplets, and this lead to bad optical property of the SiO2 transparent film. You will need to use filtered cathodic arc evaportaion. The best way is, of course to use sputtering technique.

Regards,

Nuno Lima
coatings and surface engineering - Braga, Portugal
2003

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Silicon is a semiconductor. Sustaining an arc on silicon is almost impossible. Even if you can get a sustained arc with a silicon cathode, adding oxygen to the system will give you SiO2 on the substrate, but also on the anode of your arc source, stopping the arc.

Jim Treglio - scwineryreview.com
PVD Consultant & Wine Lover - San Diego,
California
2003

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You could try filtered or shielded arc in oxygen. It would be an interesting project to work on.

H.R. Prabhakara - Consultant
Bangalore Plasmatek - Bangalore Karnataka India
2003

Glass industry has been deposition - Sputtering SiO2 for years on big roll machines.. you can find this info by visting Large Glass manuf. web sites..

Freidoon
- RPV, California
2003

Si can be arc deposited but not through any type of cathodic arc method. An insulator cannot be a cathode! Sputtering is a completely different technology with a very different manner of producing plasma and ions. For Si you would have to use RF and that's tricky at best, though commonly done.

Dale Gleason
- Loveland, Colorado
2003