DEPOSITION OF EPITAXIAL YTTRIA-STABILIZED ZIRCONIA ON SINGLE-CRYSTAL SI AND SUBSEQUENT GROWTH OF AN AMORPHOUS SIO2 INTERLAYER

A processing technique is developed to fabricate single-crystal yttria -stabilized zirconia (YSZ) on amorphous SiO2 on (100) single-crystal S i. The YSZ layer shows high crystallinity with an ion beam channelling minimum of 11% from Rutherford backscattering. Even though there is a thick intervening amorphous SiO2 layer between the Si and the YSZ, th e single-crystal YSZ layer is aligned with the crystal Si. The tilt an d rotation variations are 0.64 degrees and 1.11 degrees respectively, based on X-ray diffraction omega-rocking curves on [100] and phi scans on [202] of YSZ films. The epitaxial nature of the YSZ on the thick S iO2 layer (from 10 to 100 nm) is further confirmed by high-resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy analysis. This proces sing and the resulting multilayer structure might provide a new option for fabricating innovative microelectronic devices.