The University of Southampton, England, announces that a research group has developed a rapid deposition technology in which pulsed beams of electrons break up a gallium-lanthanum-sulfur (GLS) glass target material and deposit it as a thin film onto a substrate at a rate greater than 0.2 microns/minute. GLS materials have excellent IR transparency and improved thermal and mechanical properties, without the toxicity issues of arsenic-based glasses commonly used industry-wide.
The University and Plasma App Limited have announced that they are collaborating in a one-year $183,000 feasibility study to explore novel thin film coating technology and applications. The study is co-funded by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Plasma App’s novel Virtual Cathode Deposition (VCD) technique uses pulsed beams of electrons to break up the GLS target material and deposit it as a thin film at a rate over 10,000 times faster than conventional deposition by RF sputtering.
The project collaborators intend to produce well-characterized samples of a range of novel GLS based optics for dissemination to members of EPSRC-funded Chalcogenide Advanced Manufacturing Partnership. The wider community of chalcogenide glass users, especially those pursing optical applications for aerospace, defense and infrared imaging, or electronic applications such as next generation memory, will also use them.
