Siting a film onto a substrate including electron-beam evaporation

Claim 1

A process for depositing a film onto a substrate, comprising evaporating under reduced pressure at least one element which is to be a constituent of the film by an electron beam directed onto the element, and heating the substrate, the process being performed in an atmosphere containing hydrogen, the hydrogen being ionised by electrons emitted thermally from the element, the electrons being collected by applying an electric field and wherein each element is chosen such as to form a compound with hydrogen in the ionised gas, such that on reaching the heated substrate a film of a partially hydrogenated element is formed, the crystallographic structure of the film being substantially free of electrically active defects compared with a nonhydrogenated evaporated film, in which process the substrate is electrically biased by a radio frequency voltage to a net negative potential with respect to earth.