JPH0210225B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vacuum plating apparatus for vacuum deposition of metal by laser heating.

Vacuum evaporation, ion plating, etc. are methods for melting and vaporizing metal in a vacuum container and depositing it on a substrate.In these methods, resistance is used as a means to melt and vaporize metal under certain conditions. Heating methods, induction heating methods, electron beam methods, etc. are used.

However, in the resistance heating method, it is difficult to reproduce metal evaporation even though the equipment is inexpensive, and in the induction heating method, although the metal evaporation can be reproducible, the equipment tends to be expensive and large. Although the electron beam method has reproducibility of metal evaporation,
Equipment is expensive.

Moreover, in the induction heating method and the electron beam method, the equipment is installed in a vacuum container, which inevitably makes the container larger, and in the resistance heating method, evaporation is not stable. It is rarely used to create thin films that require a certain level of quality.

Under such circumstances, laser vapor deposition method emerged.

In this method, a laser generator is installed outside the vacuum container to vaporize the metal inside.

However, in this device, steam adheres to the window glass or reflective mirror of the vacuum container through which the laser beam passes, resulting in a significant drop in the transmittance or reflectance of the laser beam, and therefore, the device could only be used for a short period of time.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned problems by providing a cooling section around the window in the vacuum container to surround the path of the laser beam.This will be explained with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. In Fig. 1, 1 is a vacuum container, 2 is a window through which the laser beam 3 can pass, 4 is a glass plate attached to the window, 5 is a preform rod, and 6 is for melting and heating the preform rod. , 7 is an optical fiber after being drawn, 8 is a linear metal material that can be melted and vaporized by laser heating, 9 is a winding frame for continuously supplying the metal material, and 10 is a light after plating. It is a winding drum for winding up the fiber 11, and is similar to the conventional example in that it is equipped with these, but in the present invention, as clearly shown in FIG. 2, it is equipped with a cooling section 12. There are differences in

The cooling unit 12 includes an inner cylinder 13 that protrudes around the window 2 and surrounds the path of the laser beam 3, and a cylindrical member that is arranged on the outer periphery of the inner cylinder 13 and has a liquid gas passage 14 inside its peripheral wall. 15 and the same member 1
5 and a heat insulating layer 16 provided on the outer periphery.

Therefore, when the liquid gas passage is filled with liquid gas such as liquid nitrogen through a piping system not shown,
The inner cylinder 13 will be cooled.

In the above configuration, when the laser beam 3 is emitted from the oscillation unit 17 installed outside the vacuum container 1,
The laser 3 passes through the window 2 and further passes through the inner tube 13 to reach a predetermined focal position on the metal material 8.

The metal material 8 irradiated with the laser beam 3 is evaporated by laser heating and becomes metal vapor 18,
It adheres to the optical fiber 7 and scatters in all directions, thus also heading towards the window 2.

However, since the inner cylinder 13 is cooled, the molecular movement of the metal vapor 18 that has reached the inside is suppressed, and therefore the metal vapor 18 is trapped in the inner cylinder 13.

The metal material 8 is continuously supplied via the guide 19, so that the optical fiber 7 is continuously plated.

In addition, due to the presence of the heat insulating layer 16, cooling is performed by the inner cylinder 13.
You will have to concentrate only on

Further, the window 2 is cooled by piping (not shown).

20 is a holding member for holding the glass plate 4.

In the above description, a striated body such as an optical fiber was used as an example of the object to be plated, but of course the object is not limited to this.

To describe a more specific example here, an aluminum wire with a diameter of 1 mm is used as the metal material 8, and a 100PPS 200W YAG laser is irradiated onto it to evaporate the metal material 8 from both sides of the wire to be plated. Ta.

At this time, the striatum was made to run vertically at a speed of several meters/minute.

) A straight 1 mm aluminum wire was irradiated with a YAG laser to plate an iron plate, and then ion plating was performed on the plating using high frequency discharge to make the film thickness several μm.

This sample was sprayed with salt water and left for 100 hours, but no iron rust appeared.

In addition, the iron plate was rotated and revolved in the vacuum container to uniformly plate the plate.

In addition to Al, the metal material 8 includes Ti, Si,
High melting point metals such as Ni and Ta are also applicable.

Furthermore, the object to be plated is not limited to the filament, but may also be an iron plate, etc., as mentioned above.

As described above, in the present invention, the cooling section surrounding the path of the laser beam is provided around the window in the vacuum vessel, so the inside of the cooling section is cooled, and therefore, the metal vapor that has entered the inside of the cooling section is cooled. Molecular motion is suppressed and the vapor is trapped in the cooling section.

Therefore, even if the window of the vacuum container allows the laser beam to pass through it for a long time and evaporates the metal material, the desired transparency is maintained, and the transmittance of the laser beam hardly decreases.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the device according to the present invention, FIG.
The figure is a schematic sectional view showing the main parts of the device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Vacuum container, 2... Window, 7... Object to be plated (optical fiber), 8... Metal material, 12... Cooling section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A metal material that can be evaporated by laser heating is placed in a vacuum container having a window through which a laser beam from the outside can pass, and the metal material to be plated is placed in the evaporated metal atmosphere in the vacuum container. A vacuum plating device for introducing objects, characterized in that a cooling section is provided around a window in the vacuum chamber to surround a path of a laser beam. 2. The vacuum according to claim 1, wherein the cooling unit includes a cylindrical member protruding around the window, and the cylindrical member has a liquid gas passage inside its peripheral wall. Metsuki device.