Methods and apparatus for producing bulk silicon carbide and producing silicon carbide coatings are provided herein. The method includes feeding a mixture of silicon carbide and ceramic into a plasma sprayer. The plasma generates a stream towards a substrate forming a bulk material or optionally a coating on the substrate such as an article upon contact therewith. In embodiments, the substrate can be removed, leaving a component part fabricated from bulk silicon carbide.

An ARC evaporator comprising: a cathode assembly comprising a cooling plate (11), a target (1) as cathode element, an electrode arranged for enabling that an arc between the electrode and the front surface (1A) of the target (1) can be established—a magnetic guidance system placed in front of the back surface (1 B) of the target (i) comprising means for generating one or more magnetic whereas: —the borders of the cathode assembly comprise a surrounding shield (15) made of ferromagnetic material, wherein the surrounding shield (15) has a total height (H) in the transversal direction, said total height (H) including a component (C) for causing a shielding effect of magnetic field lines extending in any longitudinal directions, establishing in this manner the borders of the cathode assembly as limit of the extension of the magnetic field lines in any longitudinal direction.

A macroparticle filter device for cathodic arc evaporation, to be placed between at least one arc evaporation source and at least one substrate exhibiting at least a surface to be coated with material evaporated from a cathode of the arc evaporation source in a vacuum coating chamber. The macroparticle filter device includes one or more filter components that can prevent macroparticles emitted by the cathode during cathodic arc evaporation to arrive the substrate surface to be coated. The at least one component is provided as one or more flexible sheets that block the lineal way of the macroparticles from the cathode to the substrate surface to be coated. Further a method for utilizing the macroparticle filter device is presented.

An arc discharge generation device energizes an evaporation source with the power supply device so that the evaporation source functions as a negative electrode to have a striker chip contact the evaporation source and then separate the striker chip from the evaporation source to generate an arc discharge in the chamber. When extinguishing the arc discharge generated in the chamber, the arc discharge generation device has the striker chip contact the evaporation source and de-energizes the evaporation source with the power supply device in a situation in which the striker chip is in contact with the evaporation source.

An apparatus and method for depositing a carbon layer includes an arc discharge is formed between an electron source and an evaporation material by means of a first power supply device. The negative terminal of the first power supply device is connected in an electrically conducting manner to the electron source and the positive terminal of the first power supply device is connected in an electrically conducting manner to the evaporation material. A permanent magnet system and a solenoid coil are arranged in a rotationally symmetrical manner around the evaporation material. The evaporation material is formed as a graphite rod which is surrounded by at least one heat-insulating element at least on the rod end to be evaporated of the graphite rod.

A system for plasma ignition and maintenance of an atmospheric pressure plasma. The system has a variable frequency alternating current (AC) power source, a transformer, a cable connected to a secondary winding of the transformer, a programmed microprocessor for control of power to the atmospheric pressure plasma. The microprocessor is configured to a) at pre-ignition, power the AC power source at an operational frequency f.sub.op higher than the resonant frequency f.sub.r, b) decrease the operational frequency f.sub.op of the AC power source until there is plasma ignition, and c) after the plasma ignition, further decrease the operational frequency f.sub.op of the AC power source to a frequency lower than the resonant frequency f.sub.r.

A diamond and a preparation method and use. The method for preparing diamond comprises: processing a substrate material of a substrate holder to obtain a surface that is easily separated from diamond films using a plasma chemical vapor deposition method to form a diamond film layer on the surface of the substrate holder, wherein the plasma chemical vapor deposition uses a multi-energy sources coupled plasma; post-processing the diamond film layer to remove impurity material on the diamond surface and a nucleation layer and/or stress layer with inconsistent properties of a main body of the diamond film. The method has the advantages of controllable thickness, controllable quality, controllable cost, etc., and lays the foundation for diamond in the fields of cutting tools and heat sinks.

Systems and methods are disclosed for using downhole plasma discharge effects to determine porosity and/or permeability of formation material. In some embodiments, a method includes determining a concentration of at least one chemical reaction product in a drilling fluid that has interacted with a plasma discharge proximate formation material. A relation between arc and spark of the plasma discharge is determined based, at least in part, on the at least one chemical reaction product, and at least one of porosity and permeability of the formation material is determined based, at least in part, on the relation between arc and spark.

A method for depositing a coating of a source material onto a panel is disclosed. The method includes providing a cathodic arc, the cathodic arc including a target surface, the target surface disposed along a target deposition axis and able to emit the source material as a generally cloud of source material vapor and a generally conical stream of liquid particles of the source material. The method further includes positioning the panel relative to the target surface based on a deposition angle, the deposition angle being between the target surface and an outer limit of the generally conical stream of liquid particles o the source material. The method may further include emitting the source material from the target surface as the generally conical cloud of source material vapor and coating the edge with the cloud of source material vapor to provide an edge coating.

The present disclosure relates to an arc ion coating device and a coating method. The arc ion coating device includes: a vacuum chamber with a vacuum environment inside; an arc generation component disposed in the vacuum chamber and comprising a cathode target, an anode and an arc starter, the cathode target being columnar and configured to release plasmas, and the arc starter being disposed between the cathode target and the anode and configured to generate charged particles to guide a generation of an arc between a side of the cathode target and the anode to coat a workpiece; a support frame disposed in the vacuum chamber, the support frame being disposed at a side of the anode away from the cathode target and configured for a placement of the workpiece; and a power supply component comprising an arc power supply and a first accumulator, the arc power supply having a first output end and a second output end, the first output end being configured to output a pulsed voltage and connected to the arc starter, the second output end being configured to output an adjustable DC voltage and charge the first accumulator, and a negative pole and a positive pole of the first accumulator being connected to the cathode target and the anode, respectively.