The growth-temperature-dependent interface structure of yttria-stabilized zirconia thin films grown on Si substrates

Growth mechanism of epitaxial YSZ on Si by Pulsed Laser Deposition

The epitaxial growth of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) on silicon with native oxide was investigated in order to gain more insight in the growth mechanism. Specifically, attention was paid to the possibilities to control the chemical interactions between YSZ, silicon and oxygen during initial growth. The sources of oxygen during growth proved to play an important role in the growth process, as shown by individual manipulation of all sources present during Pulsed Laser Deposition. Partial oxidation of the YSZ plasma and sufficient delivery of oxygen to the growing film were necessary to prevent silicide formation and obtain optimal YSZ crystalline qualities. In these conditions, thickness increase of the silicon native oxide before growth just started to occur, while a much faster regrowth of silicon oxide at the YSZ-Si interface occurred during growth. Control of all these contributions to the growth process is necessary to obtain reproducible growth of high quality YSZ.

Growth of Co2FeAl Heusler alloy thin films on Si(100) having very small Gilbert damping by Ion beam sputtering

The influence of growth temperature T_s (300–773 K) on the structural phase ordering, static and dynamic magnetization behaviour has been investigated in ion beam sputtered full Heusler alloy Co₂FeAl (CFA) thin films on industrially important Si(100) substrate. The B2 type magnetic ordering is established in these films based on the clear observation of the (200) diffraction peak. These ion beam sputtered CFA films possess very small surface roughness of the order of subatomic dimensions (<3 Å) as determined from the fitting of XRR spectra and also by AFM imaging. This is supported by the occurrence of distinct Kiessig fringes spanning over the whole scanning range (~4°) in the x-ray reflectivity (XRR) spectra. The Gilbert damping constant α and effective magnetization 4πM_eff are found to vary from 0.0053 ± 0.0002 to 0.0015 ± 0.0001 and 13.45 ± 00.03 kG to 14.03 ± 0.04 kG, respectively. These Co₂FeAl films possess saturation magnetization ranging from 4.82 ± 0.09 to 5.22 ± 0.10 μ_B/f.u. consistent with the bulk L2₁-type ordering. A record low α-value of 0.0015 is obtained for Co₂FeAl films deposited on Si substrate at T_s ~ 573 K.