Approaches to rid cathodic arc plasmas of macro- and nanoparticles: a review

A major obstacle for the broad application of cathodic are plasma deposition is the presence of micro- and nanoparticles in the plasma, also often referred to as 'macroparticles'. This paper reviews the formation of macroparticles at cathode spots, their interaction with the are plasma and substrate, and macroparticle separation and removal from the plasma by various filtering methods. Nineteen variants of filters are discussed, including Aksenov's classic 90 degrees-duct filter, filters of open architecture, and the concept of stroboscopic filtering. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.