Apparatus, method and system for coating a substrate, in particular a superconducting tape conductor and coated superconducting tape conductor

An apparatus for coating a substrate with a metallic coating, in a vacuum environment, wherein a background gas pressure in the vacuum environment is at most 1·10−1 Pascal, comprising:

• a gas source for generating a metallic material in the gas phase, wherein the vapor pressure of the metallic material in the gas source is at least 1·101 Pascal;
• wherein the gas source comprises an opening from which the gaseous metallic material flows into an expansion chamber installed between the gas source and a coating zone for the substrate;
• wherein the expansion chamber is formed as a divergent part of a Laval nozzle having an inlet opening directed to the gas source and an outlet opening directed towards the coating zone such that a flow of the gaseous metallic material is parallelized with respect to the substrate;
• wherein the expansion chamber is coated with an anti-adhesion coating and is actively cooled, and
• wherein a lamellar diaphragm is arranged between the gas source and the inlet opening of the expansion chamber.