SPI Carbon Cathode for Sputter Coaters

Deposit carbon by sputtering but only if you have a turbo pumped coater system

Background:
One can not, in theory, sputter carbon very well. In the normal SEM coater, one can do this only marginally, and some might even say, not at all.

One can replace their metal cathode with the SPI carbon cathode. And they can try to sputter carbon. Typically, after about 30 minutes in the typical SEM lab sputter coater, a white piece of paper can be made to turn dark (from the carbon coating).

However, this is very misleading, since to the eye, the coating looks like it might be "enough" carbon for EDS analysis, upon examination, one finds that the coating lacks the kind of conductivity that is generally needed for EDS work.

However there are some instances where this kind of carbon coating might in fact be acceptable. For those without carbon coaters, and doing low magnification work on samples that are not heat sensititive, this kind of carbon coating might be enough to get by. In any case, the cost of a carbon cathode, for use with a conventional sputter coater, is certain cheaper than purchasing a new carbon coater.

This cathode was originally designed for those heads with a screw in the head such as the original SPI Sputter Carbon Coater. It can be used on other sputter coaters by attachment to the sputter head with some specially formulated silver epoxy. The disc is 50 mm (2") in diameter and 2 mm (0.079") thick.

Carbon cathode:

SPI #	Each		In Stock
14147-AB	$10.40		Yes

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