Investigation of Structural and Optical Properties of GDC Thin Films Deposited by Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to analyze structural and optical properties of gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC, Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95) thin films. At first the ceria–gadolinia multilayer sandwich systems (4–12 layers) were deposited using reactive magnetron sputtering in the O2/Ar gas mixtures. The films were formed with ≈ 90% ceria and ≈ 10% gadolinia. The GDC thin films deposited on Si (111) substrate were annealed at 600 ◦C for 1 h in air. The thickness of the formed GDC multilayer systems was about 600 nm. The GDC thin film microstructure was investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The texture coefficient Tc(hkl) of GDC films was evaluated from the X-ray diffraction patterns. The crystallite size of GDC films was estimated from the Scherrer equation. Optical properties of the annealed GDC thin films were examined using a laser ellipsometer. The results show that the number of layers has the influence on GDC thin film formation. As follows from the analysis of structural and optical properties of GDC 12 layer system annealed at 600 ◦C for one hour in air has the highest refractive index n = 2.17.