Facilities

 Equipment for film processing

• vacuum equipment for plasma/ion beam processing and film deposition

In collaboration with Department of Gaseous Electronics we developed facility for plasma beam processing of various surfaces. It is based on unique sources of accelerated plasma beams, so named anode layer sources (ALS). This setup provides (1) plasma beam etching and (2) plasma beam sputtering deposition. We use it for production of liquid crystal alignment films, conductive and dielectric layers, protective and antireflective coatings.

Figure 1. (a) general construction of anode layer source; 1 – outer cathode, 2 – inner cathode, 3 – anode, 4 – permanent magnets; (b) and (c) photographs of etching and sputtering type ALS, respectively. Insets in (b) and (c) schematically explain working principle of sources. 5 – beam of accelerated plasma (primary beam), 6 – beam of particles extracted from target (secondary beam, 7 – target plate. (d) discharge are and plasma “sheets”. Figure 2. Vacuum setup: general view.