AVS 49th International Symposium
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuP

Paper TF-TuP19
Growth and Characterization of Single Crystal Multi Layer Nano Structures for Fast Ion Conduction

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B2

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: C.H.F. Peden, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Authors: S. Azad, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
S. Thevuthasan, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
V. Shutthanandan, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
C.M. Wang, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
D.E. McCready, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
J.W. Stevenson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
S. Baskaran, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
C.H.F. Peden, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Recently, considerable interest has been shown in the growth and characterization of nanoscale materials since they often have very different properties from the bulk material. It has been demonstrated that restructuring simple ionic crystals at the nano scale can alter the electrical properties of ion conducting materials. Such materials have potential applications in solid electrolyte-based devices such as high-temperature batteries and fuel cells.@footnote 1@ Recently, we successfully grew epitaxial single-crystal multi layer thin films of pure and mixed ceria and zirconia on single-crystal yittria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrates at the Molecular Beam Epitaxy facility of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL). The films, with different thickness, were grown at various substrate temperatures in order to investigate the role of substrate temperature and film thickness on ionic conductivity. The interface between pure and mixed ceria films and YSZ substrates showed misfit dislocations, and the defect density at the interface affected the ionic conduction. These films were characterized using in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), ex-situ x-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) along with ion channeling. These results will be discussed along with the ionic conductivity measurements from these films and substrates. @FootnoteText@Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Offices of Basic Energy Sciences and Biological and Environmental Research. @footnote 1@ N. Sata, K. Eberman, K. Eberl and J. Maier, Nature 408 (2000) 946.