Fabrication of epitaxial zirconia and ceria thin films with arbitrary dopant and host atom composition

摘要: Abstract Epitaxial zirconia and ceria thin films have been of interest recently as components solid oxide fuel cells other devices well means to study interfacial strain effects on ion motion. These are typically fabricated by one a variety physical vapor deposition methods. One difficulty in these studies is that the film composition fixed ceramic or metal alloy target. Here, we demonstrate produce epitaxial with arbitrary dopant Zr–Ce ratio. Reactive co-sputtering was performed using pure elemental targets Zr, Ce, Y, Gd onto (100) MgO substrates. The use allowed for high purity and, varying relative sputtering powers time, thickness single multi-layer controlled. X-ray diffraction transmission electron microscopy showed yttria-stabilized (YSZ) deposited substrates at substrate temperature 400 °C were epitaxially grown along direction, while gadolinium doped (GDC) had no relationship. Still, it found YSZ could be used buffer layer enable growth GDC orientation.