{ "id": "epd0kf8xst", "slug": "ion-plating", "title": "Ion plating", "updated": "2026-10-15", "topic_path": [ { "id": "technology", "label": "Technology and the built world", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology" }, { "id": "technology.engineering", "label": "Engineering and manufacturing", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.engineering" }, { "id": "technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes", "label": "Manufacturing processes and fabrication", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes" }, { "id": "technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing", "label": "Forming, heat treatment, and finishing", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing" }, { "id": "technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing.physical-vapor-deposition", "label": "Physical vapor deposition", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing.physical-vapor-deposition" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing", "label": "Non-geographic · 1946 to 2000: Forming, heat treatment, and finishing", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing", "path": [ { "id": "geo.nongeo", "label": "Non-geographic", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.t1946", "label": "Non-geographic · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.t1946.technology", "label": "Technology and the built world", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t1946.technology" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering", "label": "Engineering and manufacturing", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes", "label": "Manufacturing processes and fabrication", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing", "label": "Forming, heat treatment, and finishing", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t1946.technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Ion plating is a physical vapor deposition method in which the substrate and growing film are bombarded with energetic ions, giving dense, adherent coatings at low temperatures.", "snippet": "Ion plating is a physical vapor deposition method in which the substrate and growing film are bombarded with energetic ions, giving dense, adherent coatings at low temperatures.", "node": "technology.engineering.manufacturing.processes.forming-heat-treatment-and-finishing.physical-vapor-deposition", "markdown": "# Ion plating\n\nIon plating is a physical vapor deposition method in which the substrate and the growing film are bombarded with a flux of energetic ions or particles during coating, so that adhesion, density, and stress differ from those of a non-bombarded film. In Mattox's definition, the substrate receives energetic ions sufficient to cause appreciable sputtering (ejection of surface atoms by ion bombardment) before and during film formation.[1](https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1318041) When the energetic particles come from a beam in vacuum the process is usually called ion-beam-assisted deposition; the plasma-based version is the classic form.[2](https://www.asminternational.org/results/-/journal_content/56/ASMHBA0001289/BOOK-ARTICLE/) The method is used in surface engineering to produce adherent, dense coatings at relatively low substrate temperatures.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/)\n\n| Key fact | Value |\n| --- | --- |\n| Defining feature | Continuous or periodic flux of energetic particles on substrate and growing film, sufficient to change film formation and properties[2](https://www.asminternational.org/results/-/journal_content/56/ASMHBA0001289/BOOK-ARTICLE/) |\n| Typical plasma conditions | Argon at 1–10 Pa with 3–5 kV negative substrate bias (dc glow discharge)[4](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6595/ac7f53) |\n| Degree of ionization in early work | On the order of 0.1%, defined as \\( \\alpha = n_{\\mathrm{i}}/(n_{\\mathrm{i}} + n_{0}) \\)[5](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/02_360.pdf) |\n| Useful ion energy window | 10–80 eV depending on materials system; above about 50 eV, appreciable ion-induced defects[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/) • [6](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17175/FULLTEXT02) |\n| Growth condition | Flux of depositing particles must exceed the flux of sputtered particles[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) |\n| Typical uses | Corrosion-resistant aluminum on steel fasteners, optical oxide films[8](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/03_011.pdf) • [9](https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/lbnl-61903.pdf) |\n\n## How it works\n\nThe substrate is held at a negative potential in a glow discharge, so ions and high-energy neutrals formed by charge exchange strike it before and during deposition from an evaporator.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) Bombardment sputters the surface, produces defects, disrupts crystallography, incorporates gas, raises temperature, and physically mixes near-surface material.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) Three effects improve adhesion: sputter cleaning that keeps the surface clean until the film forms, a high energy flux that raises surface temperature and enhances diffusion and chemical reaction without bulk heating, and interfacial alteration by defect introduction and film–substrate mixing.[1](https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1318041) Ballistic mixing creates intermixed interfaces that raise adhesion, though this must be avoided on electronically active components.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/)\n\nBombardment also densifies the film: at low deposited energy films are porous with tensile stress, at a few tens of eV per particle stress turns compressive as the material densifies, and beyond a maximum stress relaxes through thermal spikes.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/) A coating only grows if the depositing flux exceeds the sputtered flux.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) The energy arriving is mostly carried by neutrals: Teer estimated that for every energetic ion arriving at the cathode at least 14 energetic neutrals arrive, with average ion energy about 1/10 and neutral energy about 1/22 of the cathode potential.[4](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6595/ac7f53) Even a degree of ionization near 0.1% markedly changed coating properties in early work.[5](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/02_360.pdf) The large \"throwing power\", depositing material out of line-of-sight of the source, is attributed to gas scattering at higher pressures.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) • [1](https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1318041)\n\n## How it is done\n\nA plasma-based run uses a dc abnormal glow discharge generated by applying a highly negative voltage, typically 3–5 kV, to the substrate in argon at 1–10 Pa, then starting evaporation from a resistively heated or electron-beam source while bombardment continues.[4](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6595/ac7f53) • [7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) Plasma-based ion plating requires gas pressure above about 13 mPa (\\( 1 \\times 10^{-4} \\) torr); plasmas are classed as low-pressure (below about 0.4 Pa, 3 mtorr) or higher-pressure.[2](https://www.asminternational.org/results/-/journal_content/56/ASMHBA0001289/BOOK-ARTICLE/) The equipment is essentially the same as that needed for sputtering: a vacuum chamber, gas feed, bias supply, and a vapor source, with the plasma alternatively generated by a thermionic triode electron beam, a hollow cathode source, or an inductively coupled discharge.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) • [4](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6595/ac7f53)\n\n## Origin\n\nDonald M. Mattox published the first major review of ion plating, \"Fundamentals of Ion Plating,\" in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology in 1973.[1](https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1318041) The process was developed at Sandia, where, while solving an adhesion problem with vacuum-cadmium plating on high-pressure gas bottles, a system was set up in one afternoon that sputter-cleaned the surface and then began thermal evaporation while sputtering continued.[8](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/03_011.pdf) Ion plating is a method in which the depositing species is ionized and accelerated by a gaseous discharge to give adherent films on metallic, semiconducting, or insulating substrates.[10](https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4038817) The process was reported at the summer Gordon Research Conference on Adhesion.[8](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/03_011.pdf) His 1973 review laid out the crucial components: a vapor generator, plasma, and negative substrate bias.[1](https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1318041) As a precursor, glow-discharge coating with negative bias was patented claiming improved adhesion and densification, but no technical papers on his process were found.[8](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/03_011.pdf)\n\n## Variants\n\nMattox's review names Vacuum Ion Plating, Reactive Ion Plating, Chemical Ion Plating, and Bias Sputtering, with alternate terms Ion Vapor Deposition, Ion Evaporation, and Accelerated Ion Deposition; a sputtering cathode source gives bias sputtering, an electron-beam source with reactive gases gives reactive ion plating, and a decomposing compound gas gives chemical ion plating.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) Ion vapor deposition (IVD), the aluminum fastener process also called \"Ivadizing\", is the industrial name for plasma-based ion plating.[8](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/03_011.pdf)\n\nIn ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD), bombardment comes from a separate ion source, typically argon ions of 1–5 keV at current densities of 1–200 µA/cm², decoupling ion energy from the evaporant flux.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/) • [2](https://www.asminternational.org/results/-/journal_content/56/ASMHBA0001289/BOOK-ARTICLE/) [Cathodic arc deposition](https://www.edgepedia.org/cathodic-arc-deposition), established in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and the West in the 1980s, delivers metal ions at 19–142 eV even without bias; macroparticles are removed by the 90° filter duct.[9](https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/lbnl-61903.pdf) • [5](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/02_360.pdf) Metal plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (MePIIID) produces adherent hard films including tetrahedral amorphous carbon.[9](https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/lbnl-61903.pdf) Ionized physical vapor deposition (i-PVD), developed in the 1990s for integrated circuit metallization, raises the ionized fraction of sputtered atoms to 50–90% versus about 1% in conventional magnetron sputtering.[9](https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/lbnl-61903.pdf) • [6](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17175/FULLTEXT02) K. S. Fancey and A. Matthews analyzed evaporative ion plating mechanisms and optimization, including a critical bombarding energy concept, in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science in 1990.[11](https://doi.org/10.1109/27.61497)\n\n## Applications\n\nIon plating is used in the aircraft industry to aluminize steel fasteners for corrosion protection, under specification Mil-C-83488, and was applied early to reactor fuel elements and tribological coatings.[9](https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/lbnl-61903.pdf) • [8](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/03_011.pdf) Mattox's review lists corrosion-resistant, wear- and erosion-resistant, lubrication, and bonding coatings across many film–substrate combinations.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) Balzers' 1980s BAP800 reactive ion plating apparatus, with an argon plasma source at 55 V, 55 A, served mainly high-quality optical oxide films.[9](https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/lbnl-61903.pdf)\n\n## Limitations and alternatives\n\nMost bombardment energy appears as surface heating, with bulk temperature set by surface-to-mass ratio, thermal properties, and energy input.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) High-voltage bias risks electrical breakdown and substrate arcing; surface binding energies are 2–8 eV and displacement energies 10–40 eV, so each kilovolt ion affects many near-surface atoms.[5](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/02_360.pdf) Ion energies above 50 eV cause appreciable ion-induced defects,[6](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17175/FULLTEXT02) and the deposition environment is poorly defined, with unknown ion energy distributions and unknown atom-to-bombarding-particle ratios.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) A dc discharge can almost never deliver an atomically clean surface because contaminants are backscattered, ionized, and returned.[7](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274) Bias is a trade-off: raising bias densified arc-plated NiCoCrAlYTa coatings but lowered their Al content and dramatically reduced oxidation resistance.[12](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010938X17314361) IBAD suffers low growth rates from limited ion current, defect generation, and concurrent sputter removal of the growing film.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/)\n\nCompared with dc magnetron sputtering, which runs at 0.1–1.5 Pa with static rates up to 10 nm/s but ionizes only about 1% of sputtered material, ion plating's bombardment is more energetic but less well controlled.[4](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6595/ac7f53) HIPIMS raises the ionized fraction but cuts deposition rate to typically 25–35% of conventional sputtering at identical average power; its dense 2 µm CrN coatings outperformed 20 µm electroplated hard chrome in corrosion resistance.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/) • [6](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17175/FULLTEXT02)\n\n## References\n\n1. [D. M. Mattox (1973). Fundamentals of Ion Plating. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology.](https://doi.org/10.1116/1.1318041)\n2. [Ion Plating (ASM International handbook article, Mattox, 1994)](https://www.asminternational.org/results/-/journal_content/56/ASMHBA0001289/BOOK-ARTICLE/)\n3. [Thin Film Deposition Using Energetic Ions (review)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5445827/)\n4. [Foundations of physical vapor deposition with plasma assistance (Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., 2022)](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6595/ac7f53)\n5. [Ion Plating and Beyond: Pushing the Limits of Energetic Deposition (Anders, SVC)](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/02_360.pdf)\n6. [Ionized physical vapor deposition (IPVD): A review of technology and applications (Gudmundsson)](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:17175/FULLTEXT02)\n7. [Fundamental Processes in Ion Plating (D. M. Mattox, Sandia Laboratories)](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5726274)\n8. [Foundations of Vacuum Coating Technology (SVC)](https://www.svc.org/clientuploads/directory/resource_library/03_011.pdf)\n9. [Plasma and Ion Assistance in Physical Vapor Deposition: A Historical Perspective (Anders, LBNL)](https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/lbnl-61903.pdf)\n10. [Film Deposition Using Accelerated Ions (Technical Report)](https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4038817)\n11. [K.S. Fancey, A. Matthews (1990). Evaporative ion plating: process mechanisms and optimization. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science.](https://doi.org/10.1109/27.61497)\n12. [Effect of bias voltage on the oxidation resistance of NiCoCrAlYTa coatings prepared by arc ion plating](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010938X17314361)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Engineering and manufacturing › Manufacturing processes and fabrication › Forming, heat treatment, and finishing › Physical vapor deposition*\n\n*Initially written Sep 29, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/ion-plating", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/ion-plating.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Ion plating\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/ion-plating. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Ion plating](https://www.edgepedia.org/ion-plating)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/ion-plating](https://www.edgepedia.org/ion-plating). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Ion plating\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/ion-plating. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Ion plating is a physical vapor deposition method in which the substrate and growing film are bombarded with energetic ions, giving dense, adherent coatings at low temperatures." }