Plasma Generation in a Double Anode Vacuum Arc

The hot refractory anode vacuum arc (HRAVA) plasma source was previously developed with a consumed cathode and a refractory anode to reduce the macroparticle (MP) contamination in vacuum arc deposited films. The HRAVA had open cylindrical electrodes and demonstrated that it not only reduced MP sizes and numbers but also converted MP material to plasma, and thus increased the deposition rate. This paper presents a new HRAVA configuration with a double arc between a common water-cooled Cu cathode with two active surfaces and two refractory graphite or tungsten anodes, with the aim of depositing film over a wider area. The arc current in each of the two arcs was 125 A for graphite and 150 A for tungsten. The radially expanding plasma plumes from each of the cathode–anode gaps merged, forming a wider common plasma. Cu films were deposited and over a 150 mm length parallel to the arc axis, while the corresponding length from a single-HRAVA source was only 75 mm.