Growth of biaxially textured yttria-stabilized zirconia thin films on Si(111) substrate by ion beam assisted deposition

The (001) oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films with in-plane biaxial texture have been deposited on Si(111) substrates by ion beam assisted deposition at ambient temperature. The effects of ion/atom arrival rate ratio (R=(Ar++O-2(+))/ZrO2) and incident angle of bombarding ion beam on the film texture development were investigated. It was found that the in-plane biaxial texture of the films was improved gradually with increasing ion/atom arrival rate ratio R up to a critical value 1.9, but it was degraded with the further increase of R. The optimal in-plane biaxial texture, whose full width at half maximum of the (111) phi-scan spectrum is 14 degrees, can be obtained at R=1.9 and incident angle of 55 degrees. For a fixed R, the optimal crystallinity and in-plane biaxial alignment Of the YSZ films did not appear at the same incident angle and showed an opposite variation with the change Of the incident angle from 51 degrees to 55 degrees. C-axis alignment (perpendicular to substrate surface) does not show any substantial variation with the change of incident angle within the range of 47 degrees - 56 degrees.