Structural and optical properties of YSZ thin films grown by PLD technique

We report on the structural and optical properties of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique and in situ crystallized at different substrate temperatures (Ts = 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C). Yttria-stabilized zirconia target of ∼1 in. diameter (∼95% density) was fabricated by solid state reaction method for thin film deposition by PLD. The YSZ thin films were grown on an optically polished quartz substrates and the deposition time was 30 min for all the films. XRD analysis shows cubic crystalline phase of YSZ films with preferred orientation along 〈1 1 1〉. The surface roughness was determined by AFM for the films deposited at different substrate temperatures. The nano-sized surface roughness is found to increase with the increase of deposition temperatures. For the optical analysis, a UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer was used and the optical band gap of ∼5.7 eV was calculated from transmittance curves.

► Yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. ► The films were in situ crystallised at different substrate temperatures (Ts = 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C). ► XRD analysis shows single phase fluorite films (YSZ has a fluorite crystallographic structure) with preferred orientation along 〈1 1 1〉. ► The surface roughness of the films were nano sized that increases further with the increase of deposition temperatures. ► An optical band gap of ∼5.7 eV is in agreement with the reported values.