Modification of zirconia film properties by low-energy ion bombardment during reactive ion-beam deposition

Abstract

The effect of low-energy ion bombardment on the structure and properties of zirconia films deposited by reactive ion-beam process is investigated. Bombardment of 100-eV Ar+ during film growth is shown to induce a substantial relaxation of the residual stress as a result of structural modification by the increased mobility of adatoms. Concurrently, the oxygen gettering capability, or film stoichiometry, is improved by the enhanced diffusion of oxygen on substrate surface. The structural change by thermal annealing, up to 600 °C, demonstrates that fine-grained (200–400 Å) cubic zirconia can be stabilized down to room temperature without alloying stabilizers. The impingement of low-energy Ar+ during film growth results in an as-deposited film microstructure which promotes the growth of the cubic-phase crystallites upon post-deposition annealing as well as the texturing of film plane into (111) orientation. The refractive index and optical transmission of the zirconia films are shown to be dependent predominantly upon the oxygen content in the film and less sensitive to the improved atomic packing due to the low-energy Ar+ bombardment.

Synthesis and characterization of tantalum nitride films prepared by cathodic vacuum arc technique

“…The calculated crystallite size of our films ranges from about 17 to 42 nm when the N 2 partial pressure increases from 15 to 50%. Generally, growth of large crystallite is linked with high surface mobility of adatoms and the deposition rate [18,19]. In our case, the deposition rate also decreases when nitrogen partial pressure increases, as mentioned before.…”

Evidence of stress-induced tetragonal-to-monoclinic phase transformation during sputter deposition of yttria-stabilized zirconia

“…4,5 Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films have been deposited using a variety of techniques and have been investigated thoroughly. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Just like its bulk counterpart, YSZ thin films can exist in three distinct crystal structures: monoclinic (M); the low-temperature phase; and two high-temperature phases, tetragonal (T) and cubic (C). With the addition of a stabilizing oxide such as yttria, the high-temperature phases (T and C) can exist at room temperature.…”

Tailoring of structure formation and phase composition in reactively sputtered zirconium oxide films using nitrogen as an additional reactive gas

“…The simultaneous bombardment with fast ions or substrate heating resulted in the formation of a cubic ZrO 2 phase. 1,16,17 This effect was attributed to thermal spikes leading to the nucleation of cubic grains. Since the surface energy of the cubic grains is smaller than that of monoclinic or tetragonal grains, these nuclei are expected to be stable at sufficiently small grain sizes.…”