Stress measurements during thin film zirconium oxide growth

Stress accumulation during thin film zirconium oxide growth was successfully measured using new curvature measurement technique and stress of up to 5.1 GPa was observed in an approximately 50 nm thick oxide film. Experimental results also show that steam and air oxidation make little difference in the stress profile on the oxide film thickness, especially during the early stage of oxidation. This result possibly supports the theory that zirconium corrosion kinetics crucially depends on the oxide phase transformation at the metal–oxide interface. Apparent discrepancies between previous studies were interpreted in terms of stress relaxation effects on the measurements.