Evaporative Deposition of Aluminum Single Crystals

The classic zone model for growth of evaporated deposits serves a starting point for selecting the process conditions to produce dense crystalline coatings. The columnar structure intrinsic to vapor deposits evolves from the nano-to-millimeter scale as the substrate temperature increases to the melting point. In this paper, the deposition conditions are reviewed for the evolution of a single crystal structure in metal coatings. Experimental results are presented for the electron-beam deposition of aluminum coatings up to 100 μm in thickness. The deposition of a single crystal occurs when the coating temperature exceeds 530 °C, i.e. 85% of the absolute melt point.