Figure 1 XPS spectra of (a) Ce 3 d and (b) Gd 4 d core levels of

Figure 1 XPS spectra of (a) Ce 3 d and (b) Gd 4 d core levels of GDC thin films. We applied the ALD technique, thus enabling excellent step coverage to fabricate the ultrathin conformal YSZ layer using a commercial ALD system (Plus-100, Quros Co., Ltd., Osan, South Korea) [24, 25]. Prior to the deposition of a YSZ thin-film, zirconia and yttria films were separately deposited and characterized for a systematic study. Both films were fabricated by repeating the sequence of precursor pulse (3 s), purge (20 s), oxidant pulse (1 s), and purge (10 s). Tetrakis(dimethylamido)zirconium, Zr(NMe2)4, and Tris(methylcyclopentadienyl)yttrium, Y(MeCp)3, were used as precursors for zirconium and yttrium, respectively.

The precursor was delivered using an electropolished stainless steel bubbler fed by Ar gas with 99.99% purity. O2 gas was used as the www.selleckchem.com/products/nutlin-3a.html oxidant, and stage temperature was set to 250°C. The temperatures of canisters this website with charged precursors were 40°C and 180°C, and the line temperatures

were 60°C and 210°C for zirconia and yttria deposition, respectively. The growth rates of both zirconia and yttria films during the initial 1,000 cycles were approximately 1 Å/cycle. Although these growth rates were somewhat lower than the reported values (1.2 to 1.5 Å/cycle) [11], the film thickness increased proportionally with the deposition cycles. XPS analyses were performed to determine the chemical composition of an approximately learn more 100-nm-thick zirconia film and an approximately 100-nm-thick yttria film. The atomic concentrations in the zirconia thin-film were as follows: for Zr 3d, it was 41.6%, and for O 1s, it was 58.4%; they were somewhat different from the expected stoichiometry of ZrO2. It is attributed to the fact that reduced zirconium (e.g., Zr0 3d5/2 or Zr2+ 3d5/2) was partially combined with O2 during the ALD process, as indicated in the curve fitting result of Figure 2a [26]. The atomic concentrations of the yttria thin-film were Y 3d = 40.9% and O 1s = 59.1%, which are well aligned

with the stoichiometry Pyruvate dehydrogenase lipoamide kinase isozyme 1 of Y2O3. The Y 3d 5/2 peak was located at a binding energy of 156.7 eV, as shown in Figure 2b [27]. Figure 2 XPS spectra of (a) Zr 3 d and (b) Y 3 d core levels of zirconia/yttria thin films. Subsequently, YSZ thin films were fabricated by co-deposition of zirconia and yttria. Zirconia was deposited prior to yttria deposition. Yttria mole fraction in the ALD YSZ thin-film was controlled by changing the ratio of deposition cycles for zirconia and yttria. The yttria mole fraction is widely known to determine oxygen ion conductivity in the YSZ, and 8% mole yttria was reported to render the maximum oxygen ion conductivity [1]. When the ratio of zirconia and yttria ALD cycle was 7:1, the atomic concentrations of the YSZ thin-film were as follows: Zr 3d = 24.2%, Y 3d = 3.6%, and O 1s = 72.1%, which were also determined by an XPS analysis. The Y2O3 mole fraction, x, in the YSZ chemical formula of (ZrO2)1−x (Y2O3) x was approximately 0.07.

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