Structural investigation of the epitaxial yittria-stabilized zirconia films deposited on (001) silicon by laser ablation

Yittria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films doped with 3 and 9 vol%. Y2O3, resp ectively, are epitaxially deposited on (0 0 1) silicon substrates by means of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Transmission electron microscop y (TEM) and X-ray diffraction are mainly combined to study the film microst ructure. It is: found that the film structure strongly depends on the amoun t of Y2O3 dopant. 99/0 Y2O3-doped films display a near cubic structure; 45 degrees 1/2(1 1 0) dislocations are the main defects in the film and therma l cracks are formed during cooling. The 3% Y2O3-doped films are dominated b y {1 1 0} twin-related tetragonal domains in which monoclinic phase is foun d. The films are free of thermal cracks even for films thicker than 2 mum. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.