Structural and growth aspects of electron beam physical vapor deposited NiO-CeO2 nanocomposite films

Abstract

Deposition of composite materials as thin film by electron beam physical vapor deposition technique (EB-PVD) still remains as a challenge. Here, the authors report the deposition of NiO-CeO2 (30/70 wt. %) composites on quartz substrate by EB-PVD. Two NiO-CeO2 nanocomposite targets—one as green compact and the other after sintering at 1250 °C—were used for the deposition. Though the targets varied with respect to physical properties such as crystallite size (11–45 nm) and relative density (44% and 96%), the resultant thin films exhibited a mean crystallite size in the range of 20–25 nm underlining the role of physical nature of deposition. In spite of the crystalline nature of the targets and similar elemental concentration, a transformation from amorphous to crystalline structure was observed in thin films on using sintered target. Postannealing of the as deposited film at 800 °C resulted in a polycrystalline structure consisting of CeO2 and NiO. Deposition using pure CeO2 or NiO as target resulted in the preferential orientation toward (111) and (200) planes, respectively, showing the influence of adatoms on the evaporation and growth process of NiO-CeO2 composite. The results demonstrate the influence of electron beam gun power on the adatom energy for the growth process of composite oxide thin films.