Preparation and microstructure analysis of Ti-Al sheet by electron beam physical vapor deposition

By using electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) technology, Ti-Al thin sheet with dimension of 450mm×450mm×0.2mm was prepared and the microstructure of Ti-Al deposit was investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atom force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), and then the effect on deposit by re-evaporation of Al was explored by calculating the ratio of re-evaporating capacity with depositing capacity of Al on the substrate. The results indicate that there existed equiaxed crystal and columnar crystal along the cross-sectional may resulted from the transformation latent heats released during the transition course of atoms from gaseous state to solid state, and the variation of target-substrate distance would take effect on the phase composition due to the changing of atoms collision probability and radiant heat quantity absorbed by substrate. The effect on deposit by re-evaporation of Al could be neglected because the re-evaporating capacity of Al was far below that of the depositing capacity.