Plasma physical vapor deposition method was most widely used to prepare ultrafine Al powders. Direct Current Arc Plasma (DCAP) and Radio Frequency Induction Plasma (RFIP) were adopted individually to produce Al powders with different particle size. The micro structure such as grain size, morphology and crystal phase was examined by SEM, TEM and XRD methods. The results show that the Al production by RFIP was better than by DCAP. DCAP has outstanding advantages in producing nanoAl powders with the particle size below 300nm while the RFIP is better to produce Al powders with the particle size 300nm to 1 μm.
Effect of Ti-Al cathode grain size on plasma generation and thin film synthesis from a direct current vacuum arc plasma source
