Heteroepitaxial growth of yttria-stabilized zirconia film on oxidized silicon by reactive sputtering

Heteroepitaxial yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) film is difficult to grow on Si by reactive sputtering with Ar + O-2 gas, since the bare Si surface is easily oxidized by plasma radiation. In order to overcome this difficulty, the substrate was subjected to weak oxidation and subsequent deposition of a very thin metallic Zr1-xYx film prior to deposition of the YSZ him. It was found that the crystalline quality of the YSZ film depended strongly on the thickness of the metallic film and the Si oxide layer. We observed the initial growth of the epitaxial YSZ film on Si by using reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and it was found that a very thin YSZ film prepared by metallic film deposition was grown epitaxially on Si but its surface was relatively rough.