The Institute of Solar Fuels of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB) has awarded scia Systems the contract for a cluster coating system.

With the system the HZB will deposit nanostructured thin films for the fabrication of photoelectrodes, which are used for efficient fuel production by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The generation of such nanostructures requires layer coating by a particular PVD technique called glancing angle deposition (GLAD).

The scia Vario 100 implements the GLAD principle with a self-developed substrate holder in conjunction with an automatic slit aperture. Available process parameters involve tilting, rotation, and temperature control of the substrate holder. In addition, the distance to the coating source, as well as the slit width, and speed can be adjusted to reach the desired process results. The deposition takes place in separate process chambers using electron beam evaporation and dual ion beam sputter deposition (DIBD).