Boron Carbide Coatings for Enhanced Performance of Radio-Frequency Antennas in Magnetic Fusion Devices

Boron Carbide Coatings for Enhanced Performance of Radio-Frequency Antennas in Magnetic Fusion Devices DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER86078 Amount: $99,027 Small Business HY-Tech Research Corporation 104 Centre Court Radford Industrial Center Radford, VA 24141-5123 Dr. C. Christopher Klepper, Principal Investigator Dr. Robert Hazelton, Business Official (540) 639-4019 Research Institution Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Road MS- 90-1070 Berkeley, CA 94720 Although boron carbide coatings have been shown to be important to the performance of radio frequency-heating couplers in long-pulse magnetic fusion devices, their low thermal conductivity limits the thickness and, therefore, the lifetime of these coatings. This project will apply dual-source metal plasma immersion technology, developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), to make B4C films using synchronized Boron/Carbon and Carbon plasma beams. In Phase I, a carbon plasma source from LBNL will be combined with a carbon-doped boron source at HY-Tech. Films produced in the resulting system will be analyzed at LBNL. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Boron-based thin films are important for hard coatings. The two-source metal plasma immersion technique should be applicable to large-scale production of coatings, nano-structures, bio-materials and superconductors._