Abstract
A new method for obtaining metal coating, consisting of hollow spherical microparticles, is presented. The pulsed vacuum arc plasma is used as the medium for spraying copper and alumina cathodes and for particle deposition on a crystalline silicon substrate. The reason for the formation of hollow spherical particles is the agglomeration of nanoparticles falling on the surface from the plasma. The effects of the original surface geometry on the size of deposited particles were discussed. Another important result is the minimum time required for the coating of substrate. In our experiments, 5 min were enough to form a 20-μm coating layer.