ABSTRACT
The stress in a thin film coating can be a major contributing factor to other mechanical properties such as hardness and adhesion. However, the stress in a film is known to be dependent on many of the deposition conditions and particularly the ion-bombardment parameters. There are many material-related problems in vapour-deposited thin films. The physical properties of an evaporated film, such as adhesion, stress, hardness, and optical properties, have been shown to depend on process parameters, including substrate temperature, deposition rate, pressure, evaporation material, substrate material, and surface preparation. Ion assistance is also known to improve the adhesion of films to substrates and other films. Ion-assisted deposition is one of the many ion-based physical vapour deposition techniques, which have made substantial improvements in many of the physical properties of deposited films. In situ real-time monitoring can be used both as a means of mapping out the parameter space rapidly and as a production process control.
