The temperature of e-beam evaporation is not explicitly stated in the provided references, but the process involves heating the source material to a point where it evaporates, which typically requires temperatures exceeding the melting point of the material. For instance, refractory metals like tungsten and tantalum, which have high melting points, are commonly evaporated using e-beam evaporation. The electron beam itself is heated to around 3000 °C, and when it strikes the source material, the kinetic energy of the electrons is converted into thermal energy, heating the material to evaporation.
In the e-beam evaporation process, a focused electron beam is used to heat and evaporate metals. The electrons are typically heated to around 3000 °C, and a 100 kV DC voltage source accelerates them towards the target material. This method is particularly useful for depositing materials with high melting points, as the heating is very localized near the beam bombardment site on the surface of the source. This localized heating prevents contamination from the crucible.
When the heated electrons strike the source material, they rapidly lose their energy, converting their kinetic energy into thermal energy that heats the source surface. Once the temperature is sufficiently high, vapor is produced and coats the surface of the substrate. Some of the incident electron energy is lost through the production of X-rays and secondary electron emission.
The process requires a high vacuum environment, typically with a pressure of less than 10^-5 Torr, to minimize collisions of source atoms with background gas atoms. This high vacuum requirement is necessary for reasonable deposition rates, where the vapor pressure must be approximately 10 mTorr. This makes e-beam evaporation suitable for materials that cannot be evaporated using thermal evaporation due to their high vaporization temperatures. For example, evaporating platinum would require a temperature of about 2000 °C, which is beyond the operating range for thermal evaporation but feasible with e-beam evaporation.
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