Zirconia films were deposited by MOCVD using Zr 2 (OiPr) 6 (thd) 2 on silicon substrate under different pressures. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) patterns showed the predominance of the tetragonal phase (or cubic). The intensity ratio of (111) t-c and (200) t-c diffraction peaks increased with the reactor pressure. The field emission gun scanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM) observation revealed that the film thickness increased and the grain size decreased with increasing the reactor pressure. The films morphology, as well as the amount of the stress in ZrO 2 films depend on their thickness: compressive stress for the thinner layers and tensile stress for the thick ones. A high peak intensity was observed at the center of the {200} pole figures showing that the majority of the surfaces plane were parallel to (100) plane. A well developed crystallographic {200} texture correspond to the alignment of the columns occurred in the films.

No abstract

Zirconia (ZrO2) thin films with micronic layer thickness are deposited on Si(100) substrates by MOCVD in a cold wall reactor using direct injection (DLI-CVD) process with Zr2(OiPr)6(thd)2 precursor diluted in cyclohexane. The effects of experimental parameters such as substrate's temperature, injection frequency, oxygen partial pressure in the reactive chamber and deposition duration of the process are investigated in order to produce a strongly textured tetragonal ZrO2 film. The films crystalline structure and crystallite size (several nm) are identified by Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD); the microstructure and morphology are observed with the use of FEG-SEM. GIXRD patterns showed the predominance of nano-crystallized tetragonal phase (or cubic) in the films. Pole figures have been analysed for both {111}(t-c) and {200}(t-c) planes in order to evaluate the relationship binding the preferential crystallographic orientation to the column-like growth structure. Besides, the internal stresses levels (with the use of sin2 psi method) within zirconia layers varied from a compressive to a tensile state depending on the experimental deposition conditions and are related to phase orientation and/or transformation into monoclinic one. It is demonstrated that high temperature, low pressure and low deposition time enhanced the tetragonal phase quality that became highly (200)t textured.