An antiemission coating based on zirconium carbide

The main requirement for the formation of an antiemission coating of intermetallic Pt$_3$Zr compound is the presence of a buffer layer of stoichiometric zirconium carbide (ZrC) that can be formed with the aid a vacuum-arc plasma source. It is shown that ZrC layer can be obtained through vacuum annealing of a multilayer film comprising nanolayers of zirconium (Zr), nonstoichiometric zirconium carbide (ZrC$_{1-x}$), and zirconium carbide with excess carbon (ZrC + C) sequentially deposited from vacuum-arc-discharge plasma.