LAUSR

Abstract To increase deposition rate during pulsed magnetron sputtering (PMS), a novel dual-pulse pulsed magnetron sputtering (DP-PMS) was proposed. The discharge mode of DP-PMS firstly produced a pulsed high ignition voltage with short duration followed by a subsequent pulsed low work voltage with long duration. CrN coatings were deposited by DP-PMS and PMS. The effect of ignition pulse width of DP-PMS on the discharge of Cr target in argon and the deposition rate of CrN coatings was explored. The target current of DP-PMS was featured by an initial peak, which was different from the triangular waveform in PMS. The DP-PMS with a longer ignition pulse produced a higher substrate current and a larger number of Cr0 at unit target power. There existed a proper width of initial ignition pulse (e.g. 15 us) producing the maximum deposition rate at unit target power, which was nearly four times higher than that of PMS.