Patent ID: 8568572

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) placing a substrate in a chamber housing a target and a cathodic arc plasma source positioned proximate the target; (b) evacuating the chamber to a vacuum pressure and maintaining the vacuum pressure without admitting an inert gas to the chamber during operations (c), (d), and (e); (c) applying a target pulse of a negative voltage to the target for a first time period while maintaining a member proximate the target at positive potential relative to the target, the member serving as an anode of a discharge, the target pulse being of sufficient amplitude so as to create a condition supportive of self-sputtering of the target after sputtering has been initiated; (d) applying a triggering pulse for a second time period to the cathodic arc plasma source to generate a triggering plasma comprising material from the cathodic arc plasma source which blankets the target to initiate sputtering of the target, the first time period and the second time period overlapping for at least a portion of the time periods; and (e) repeating operations (c) and (d) to deposit material from the target onto the substrate.