No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

This study provides information about the surface morphology of sputtered yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films from the AFM spectral analysis using the power values of the power spectral density (PSD) function at varying annealing temperatures. We obtained information about fractal features of films such as fractal dimension, correlation length, and surface roughness by interpreting fractal and K-correlation models. The PSDs of the films exhibit an inverse power-law variation at high spatial frequency, which points to the existence of the fractal components in the film’s surface. The annealing temperatures up to 900 °C resulted in a decrease in fractal dimension from 2.60 to 2. The surface roughness increased from 0.10-13.92 nm (obtained from the root mean square) and from 0.04 to 3.95 nm (obtained from the K-correlation model). The films annealed from 500 to 800 °C show fine grain size morphology with Hurst exponent values from 0.40 to 0.53, indicating a homogeneous spatial roughness distribution. While the film annealed at 900 °C has large aggregate grains morphology, suggesting the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of roughness. In contrast, normal self-affine behaviour is observed at lower annealing temperatures. The growth of a sample annealed at the temperature of 900 °C is more likely to be ruled by the step-edge barrier-induced mound growth and inhomogeneous spatial distribution of roughness.