The properties of scandium and cerium stabilized zirconium thin films formed by e-beam technique

Abstract

Scandium and cerium stabilized zirconium (10Sc1CeSZ) thin ceramic films were formed evaporating (ZrO 2) 0.89(CeO 2) 0.01(Sc 2O 3) 0.10 micro powder using e-beam evaporation technique. The influence of deposition rate on formed thin films electrical properties and microstructure was studied. 10Sc1CeSZ thin films were deposited on two types of different substrates: optical quartz (SiO 2) and Alloy 600 (Fe–Ni–Cr). Deposition rate was changed from 2 to 16 Å/s to understand its influence on thin film formation and other properties. The formed 10Sc1CeSZ thin films keep the cubic crystal structure as the initial evaporated powder material but change the main crystallographic peak from (111) to (200) for both types of substrate and used deposition rates. It was determined that the crystallites size increases from 19.0 to 24.9 nm and from 15.6 to 19.9 nm on optical quartz and Alloy 600 respectively by increasing the deposition rate (in range from 2 to 16 Å/s). The thin film density decreases by increasing the deposition rate. The ionic conductivity of 10Sc1CeSZ thin films was determined by impedance spectroscopy in the frequency range from 0.1 Hz to 1.0 MHz in temperature range from 473 K to 873 K. The best ionic conductivity σ tot = 4.91 · 10 − 2 Sm − 1 at 873 K temperature and the lowest value of activation energy ΔE a = 0.88 eV were found for 10Sc1CeSZ thin films formed at 4 Å/s deposition rate.