Patent ID: 7879411

Claim:
A method for applying at least one coating on at least one substrate comprising: presenting said at least one substrate to a chamber, wherein said chamber has an operating pressure ranging from about 0.1 to about 32,350 Pa; presenting at least one evaporant source to said chamber; presenting at least one carrier gas stream to said chamber; impinging said at least one evaporant source with at least one electron beam in said chamber to generate an evaporated vapor flux in a main direction toward said substrate; entraining said at least one generated evaporated vapor flux by said at least one carrier gas stream, wherein said carrier gas stream is essentially parallel to said main direction and substantially surrounds said evaporated flux, wherein said evaporated vapor flux at least partially coats at least one said substrate, and wherein: said at least one carrier gas stream is generated from said at least one nozzle and said at least one evaporant source is disposed in said at least one nozzle, wherein at least one said nozzle comprises: at least one nozzle gap wherein said at least one said carrier gas flows therefrom; wherein at least one said nozzle gap is defined by a shape selected from the group consisting of: ring-shaped, elliptical-shaped, elongated elliptical-shaped, cross-hatch-shaped, segmented ring-shaped, segmented elliptical-shaped, and segmented elongated elliptical-shaped; and at least one evaporant retainer for retaining at least one evaporant source, said evaporant retainer being at least substantially surrounded by at least one said nozzle gap.