Heteroepitaxial growth of CeO2 thin film on Si(001) with an ultra thin YSZbuffer layer

The effect of YSZ thickness on the epitaxial growth of CeO2 on Si(001) was investigated. The CeO2/YSZ/Si thin films were prepared by pulsed Laser depo sition. The X-ray pole figure measurement revealed that heteroepitaxial gro wth of CeO2 is realized with a 0.5-nm-thick YSZ thin film which corresponds to one unit cell of YSZ. However, when the thickness of the YSZ thin film was 0.5 nm, traces of the CeO2(111) diffraction were also detected. The CeO 2(111) diffraction was not detected for samples having more than 1.5 nm of YSZ thickness. Therefore 1.5 nm YSZ is enough to permit the complete epitax ial growth of CeO2 on Si(001). The effect of such ultra thin YSZ on the het eroepitaxial growth of CeO2 has not been reported thus far. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science S.A. All rights reserved.