Grain size stabilization of tetragonal phase of zirconia in sputtered Zr- O cermet films

In this research, thin films of Zr/ZrO2 composites were deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering technique on Si and fused Silica substrates, and their structures were investigated by XRD method. During the deposition of the cermet layers, a Zr metallic target was sputtered in a gas mixture of Ar and O2. By controlling of O2 flow rate, the different metal volume fractions in the cermet layers were achieved. The optical response of the samples was studied using spectroscopy methods. Also the effect of vacuum annealing on the structures and the optical properties were studied. XRD results indicated that the prepared samples were amorphous and vacuum annealing induced crystallization in the cermet films. This research also showed that without doping, the tetragonal phase of zirconia can be stabilized at a temperature lower than the normal transition temperature. This is “grain size stabilization” and relates to the small size of the crystallites. In order to study the electron diffraction in the selected area patterns (SAD), the samples were analyzed by a high-resolution transmission microscope. The SAD results showed that all of the as prepared samples were amorphous showing evidence of very small Zr crystallites immersed in a dielectric medium.The SAD results are in close agreement with those obtained by XRD analysis.