Energy and substance transfer in magnetron sputtering systems with liquid-phase target

• Surface erosion of liquid target of magnetron sputtering system was investigated.
• Coating deposition rate using magnetron with liquid target reaches from 100 to 1000 nm/s.
• Model of energy and substance transfer in the target–substrate system of magnetron was built.

The regularities of energy and matter transfer in the magnetron sputtering systems (MSS) with liquid-phase targets were analyzed. For this purpose a mathematical model of heat and erosion processes in a thermally insulated target of MSS has been developed and the problem of energy balance in a substrate and its heating during coating deposition was solved.The model is based on the fact that the flow of atoms from the surface of the liquid-phase target under the action of plasma consists of two independent components: sputtered and vaporized particles. The reliability of this model is confirmed by a good agreement between the calculated and experimental data.Using the model developed the regularities of the rate of the target surface erosion and metal coatings deposition were revealed. We investigated the effect of the ion current power density and material properties of the cathode. The calculations according to this model and experiments show the growth rate of metal coatings reaches from 100 to 1000 nm/s when intense evaporation occurs. It is one or two orders of magnitude higher than the rate of coating deposition when using solid target. The results can be useful for the development of technologies of high-rate coating deposition.