Magnetron sputtering of copper on thermosensitive polymer materials of the gas centrifuge rotors

Magnetron sputtering is the well-known and widely-used deposition technique for coating versatile high-quality and well-adhered films. However, the technology has some limitations, caused by high temperatures on the coating surface. The paper is devoted to the experimental development of a process of magnetron sputtering of copper on a surface coated with a thermosensitive polymer made of carbon fiber with epoxide binder. This process is applied for balancing a rotor of a gas centrifuge for isotope separation. The optimum operating parameters of the process are found and discussed. They were in quantitative agreement with data obtained by means of non-stationary modeling based on a global description of plasma in the typical geometry of the magnetron discharges obtained in independent research. The structure of the resulting layer is investigated. (paper)