Abstract The microstructure and ionic conductivity of reactively sputtered yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films are systematically studied. Those films were reactively sputtered in various sputtering modes using a closed-loop controlled system with plasma emission monitoring. A transition-mode sputtering corresponding to 45% of target poisoning produces a microstructure with ultrafine crystallites embedded in an amorphous matrix, which undergoes an abnormal grain growth upon annealing at 800 °C. At 500 °C, the measured ionic conductivity of this annealed film is higher, by about a half order of magnitude, than those of its poisoned-mode counterparts, which are in turn significantly higher than that of the YSZ bulk by about two orders of magnitude. The abnormally-grown ultra-large grain size of the film deposited in the transition mode and then annealed is believed to be responsible for the former comparison due to the suppression of the grain boundary blocking effect, while the latter comparison can be attributed to the interface effect.

中文翻译：

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溅射模式对氧化钇稳定氧化锆薄膜微观结构和离子电导率的影响

摘要 系统地研究了反应溅射氧化钇稳定氧化锆（YSZ）薄膜的微观结构和离子电导率。使用具有等离子体发射监测的闭环控制系统以各种溅射模式对这些薄膜进行反应溅射。对应于 45% 靶中毒的过渡模式溅射产生的微结构具有嵌入在非晶基体中的超细微晶，在 800°C 下退火时会发生异常晶粒生长。在 500 °C 时，测得的这种退火膜的离子电导率比其中毒模式对应物高约半个数量级，后者又显着高于 YSZ 本体约两个数量级震级。