Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Ion plating has been introduced about four decades ago, and recently much progress has been made in deeper understanding of ion beam assisted and self-ion assisted deposition techniques. A variety of energetic deposition processes have been developed which involve either plasmas, or low-energy ion beams, or both. Of particular interest are hybrid processes such as plasma immersion techniques that have several energy and species "knobs" to tune and tailor properties of coatings, graded layers, and multilayers. These processes will be briefly reviewed. Increasing the energy of condensing species leads to the formation of intermixed layers, usually accompanied with improved adhesion. Energetic deposition often leads to high compressive stress; however, stress relief can be obtained under certain conditions, especially when using high-energy ions at low duty cycle. The choice of energy and duty cycle of the high-energy particle fraction is dictated, among other factors, by the average power limits, temperature tolerance of the substrate, and the effect of re-sputtering from the growing film.