Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T22:47:50.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Optical characterization of ceramic thin films: Applications in low-temperature solid oxide fuel-cell materials research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

B.P. Gorman ,
V. Petrovsky ,
H.U. Anderson  and
T. Petrovsky
B.P. Gorman
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials Applied Research Center, University of Missouri–Rolla, Rolla, Missouri, 65409
V. Petrovsky
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials Applied Research Center, University of Missouri–Rolla, Rolla, Missouri, 65409
H.U. Anderson
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials Applied Research Center, University of Missouri–Rolla, Rolla, Missouri, 65409
T. Petrovsky
Affiliation:
Electronic Materials Applied Research Center, University of Missouri–Rolla, Rolla, Missouri, 65409
Get access

Abstract

Characterization of thin film solid oxide fuel-cell materials can be difficult due to the range of porosities in electrodes and electrolytes as well as the nano-sized pores and particles. In this study, optical characterization techniques such as ultraviolet–visible transmission and reflection spectrophotometry are illustrated as methods for achieving information about the film density from the film refractive index as well as the film thickness. These techniques were used to investigate the sintering process of colloidal CeO2 on sapphire substrates and polymeric precursor-derived ZrO2:16%Y (YSZ) thin films on silicon over the temperature range 400–1000 °C, and the results were compared with traditional characterization techniques such as electron microscopy, profilometry, ellipsometry, and x-ray diffraction line broadening analyses. Most of the techniques were in good agreement with the CeO2 grain size changing from 5–65 nm and the film thickness changing from 0.8–0.5 μm. Comparisons of transmission and reflection spectrophotometry with ellipsometry illustrated that scattering effects from the porous CeO2 films caused an overestimation of the refractive index from ellipsometry, but allowed for accurate grain size measurements from transmission and reflection data. Both techniques were in good agreement during the sintering of the YSZ thin films, with the density changing from 90–100% theoretical after heating between 400 and 800 °C.

Keywords

Ceramic filmSinteringOptical spectroscopy
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , February 2004 , pp. 573 - 578
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Gorman, B.P. and Anderson, H.U., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 85 981 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Kosacki, I., Petrovsky, V. and Anderson, H.U., Appl. Phys. Lett. 74 341 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Petrovsky, V., Anderson, H.U. and Petrovsky, T. in Nanocomposite Materials III, edited by Komarneni, S., Parker, J.C., and Hahn, H., (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 581, Warrendale, PA 2000) p. 553.Google Scholar
4Gorman, B.P. and Anderson, H.U., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. (2003, unpublished).Google Scholar
5Kosacki, I., Shumsky, M. and Anderson, H.U. in Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings 20, edited by Ustundag, I. and Fischman, G. (The American Ceramic Society, Westerville, OH, 1999), p. 135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Balzar, D. in Defect and Microstructure Analysis by Diffraction, edited by Snyder, R.L., Fiala, J., and Bunge, H.J. (International Union of Crystallography, Oxford, U.K., 1999).Google Scholar
7Petrovsky, V., Gorman, B.P., Anderson, H.U. and Petrovsky, T. in Structure-Property Relationships of Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces, edited by Carter, C.B., Pan, X., Sickafus, K., Tuller, H.L., and Wood, T.E., (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 654, Warrendale, PA 2001) p. AA7.6.1.Google Scholar
8Gorman, B.P. and Anderson, H.U., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 84 890 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Kingery, D.W.Introduction to Ceramics, 2nd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1976).Google Scholar
10Adamson, A.W.Physical Chemistry of Surfaces, 5th ed. (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1990).Google Scholar
11Flannery, C.M., Kelly, P.V., Beechinor, J.T. and Crean, G.M., Appl. Phys. Lett. 71 3767 (1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Petrovsky, V., Gorman, B.P., Anderson, H.U. and Petrovsky, T., J. Appl. Phys. 90 2517 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Murray, C., Flannery, C., Streiter, I., Schulz, S.E., Baklanov, M.R., Mogilnikov, K.P., Himcinschi, C., Friedrich, M., Zahn, D.R.T. and Gessner, T., Microelectron. Eng. 60 133 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Steele, B.C.H., Solid State Ionics 129 95 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15Inaba, H. and Tagawa, H., Solid State Ionics 83 1 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Mogensen, M., Sammes, N.M. and Tompsett, G.A., Solid State Ionics 129 63 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Djuricic, B. and Pickering, S., J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 19 1925 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Taylor, J.R.An Introduction to Error Analysis, 2nd ed. (University Science Books, Sausalito, CA, 1995).Google Scholar
19Heavens, O.S.Optical Properties of Thin Solid Films (Dover, New York, 1995).Google Scholar
20Peng, C.H. and Desu, S.B., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 77 929 (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar