Arc evaporation is a way of physical vapor deposition.

What is arc evaporation?
       Arc evaporation is a way of physical vapor deposition. The application of PVD in hard coating starts from the arc technology. The arc technology originated from electric welding. The evaporated solid metal (target) is placed in the vacuum chamber to generate glow discharge, and then it runs on the target surface. The target evaporates in a very small range, about several microns in size. The arc motion is controlled by the magnetic field. The plasma formed by the evaporated metal ions will be deposited on the surface of the workpiece. These workpieces rotate in the vacuum cavity. The coating prepared by the arc is usually used for the surface coating of tools and parts, such as tin, AlTiN, AlCrN, TiSiN, TiCN, crcn and CrN. The evaporated metal is ionized and accelerated into the electric field at the same time. In the arc process, the evaporated material is highly ionized, and the deposited coating has excellent adhesion.

电弧工艺示意图
                               电弧工艺的示意图

电弧技术的优点：
+ 高沉积速率(~1-3 µm/h) 
+ 高离化率，形成结合力好，致密的涂层 
+ 靶材冷却，涂层工件受热较少，这样可以在低于100°C以下沉积 
+ 可以蒸发多种成分的金属，剩余固态靶材成分不变 
+ 阴极可以放置在任何位置（水平、垂直、上部和下部），设备设计灵活

电弧技术的主要缺点：
- 靶材材料受限
- 只能使用金属（不包含氧化物），导致蒸发温度不会低 
- 由于很高的电流密度，一些靶材材料以小液滴的形式被蒸发溅出