In my opinion PVD technology was developed by the Russians, perfected by the Japanese and now marketed by many. This is not a propietary technology. PVD is also now being used apply nickel as a basecoat. The coatings are either deposited by arc vapor deposition or sputter deposition. In another form called sputtering, the atoms are knocked out of a surface and deposited on another surface.
Materials can be metals, alloys, polymers or ceramics.
The process of vapor transport is easier in vacuum so most processes are conducted in vacuum. There are a dozen or so methods by which this vaporization is done. But Russians exploited it as a coating method in the 70s for the nuclear industry. The cathodic arc is becoming more popular because of its simpler nature, I assume. Mandar Sunthankar ionEdge - Ft.