Surface Engineering , 16(6), 461-464, 2000.

Directed vapour deposition (DVD) is a novel physical vapour deposition (PVD) technology recently developed at the University of Virginia in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology. DVD combines sophisticated low vacuum electron beam (e-beam) evaporation with vapour transport in a flowing gas stream. Use of the gas stream enhances material utilisation efficiency and deposition rate. Use of the stream also allows different elements to be evaporated from closely neighbouring sources. When evaporated simultaneously, the elements can form precise alloys, and when evaporated sequentially, they can form multilayers. Within DVD the gas and vapour stream can be plasma activated and attracted to an electrically biased coating surface. The technique's innovative combination of e-beam evaporation, carrier gas transport, plasma activation, and biasing opens up new possibilities for the creation of desirable film structures and compositions. The DVD concept and selected results are described in this paper.