Surface morphology evolution of CeO₂/YSZ (001) buffer layers fabricated via magnetron sputtering

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• 作者：Yanyi Zhang ; Feng Feng ; Kai Shi ; Huiping Lu ; Shaozhu Xiao ; Wei Wu ; Rongxia Huang ; Timing Qu ; Xiaohao Wang ; Zhi Wang ; Zhenghe Han
• 关键词：Cerium dioxide (CeO2) ; Magnetron sputtering ; Atomic force microscopy (AFM) ; Surface morphology ; Elongated islands
• 刊名：Applied Surface Science
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：1 November, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：284
• 期：Complete
• 页码：150-154
• 全文大小：2433 K

文摘

Cerium dioxide (CeO₂)/yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) has long been proven to be an effective buffer layer architecture for high-temperature superconducting coated conductors. In this study, CeO₂ films were deposited on YSZ (001) single crystal substrates via reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering with varying substrate temperature, sputtering pressure, radio frequency sputtering power, and film thickness. High-quality texture was achieved even at ambient temperature, and deposition parameters were optimized to achieve the best degree of in-plane alignment with (111) ? scan full width at half maximum around 1.3¡ã. Atomic force microscopy was utilized to investigate film surface morphology and roughness. At a low sputtering pressure, a flat and uniform film surface comprising nano-sized isotropic islands was observed. The surface islands transited to an anisotropic spindle-like shape at pressure higher than 1.0 Pa. The spindle-shaped islands elongated along the CeO₂ [110] or [1 0] directions, constructing an interwoven surface morphology. The distinct surface morphology evolution was correlated with the change in the film strain state attributed to varying sputtering pressure. A possible mechanism for this morphology evolution was discussed.