Cathodic Arcs

Abstract

The choice of words some applications indicates that it is impossible to give a truly comprehensive account about all the films, coatings, multilayers, and nanostructures made by energetic condensation. Some important examples are selected, this time sorted and driven by the application rather than by the material or process. The range of applications includes hard coatings on tools, which are typically nitrides or carbides, corrosion-resistant and protective coatings such as ta-C (tetrahedral amorphous carbon), decorative coatings (nitrides, oxynitrides, carbides), optical coatings (oxides), metallization for the semiconductor industry, some wide band gap semiconductors (e.g., transparent conducting oxides), and bio-compatible coatings, and here we reconsider ta-C, among others.