Microstructural study of thin films of 5 mol% gadolinia doped ceria prepared by pulsed laser ablation

Abstract

Microstructural characterization of thin films of 5 mol% gadolinia doped ceria films deposited by pulsed laser ablation in the energy range 100-600 mJ/pulse has been investigated, as deposited films were found to be nanocrystalline with preferred orientation. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the size of the nanocrystals of doped ceria does not vary significantly with increasing laser energy, whereas transmission electron microscopy study showed a uniform distribution of nanocrystal of 8-10 nm for energies ≤200 mJ/pulse and nanocrystals embedded in a large crystalline matrix of doped ceria for energies in the range 400-600 mJ/pulse. Although the laser-ablated films were totally free from secondary phases, lattice imaging of the large grained doped ceria showed growth-induced defects, such as dislocations and ledges.

Dislocation Associated Incubational Domain Formation in Lightly Gadolinium-Doped Ceria

“…In the past decade, there has been intense interest in rareearth-doped ceria because of its high ionic conductivity and its better compatibility with active electrodes other than traditional yttrium-stabilized zirconia. It is also considered as a promising candidate electrolyte material for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells~IT- SOFC!~Kudo & Obayashi, 1976;Balazs & Glass, 1995;Inaba & Tagawa, 1996;Peng et al, 2002;Selladurai et al, 2007!. Among the merits of doped ceria, high ionic conductivity has become an active area of research. Many investigations have illustrated that ionic conductivity depends on dopant type, i.e., gadolinium-and samarium-doped ceria were found to have the highest conductivity~Eguchi et al, 1992!.…”

Nano-ionic thin films of gadolinia-doped ceria prepared by pulsed laser ablation

“…TEM examination showed no segregation of Gd or formation of any secondary phase in GDC films whatever may be the energy of the laser pulse. In addition, the ablated particles at laser energy ≥400 mJ/pulse appear as nanocrystals embedded in larger crystals [14].…”