Structure and properties of nanosized electron beam deposited zirconia thin films

Thin films of amorphous zirconium oxide are deposited in high vacuum via the electron gun evaporation of pure ZrO2 within a large scale of vapour incidence angles. A nanosized grain surface structure and columnar growth morphology are revealed by electron optical methods. It is demonstrated that the oblique deposition results in both column inclination and anisotropy of the column cross section that are related to the vapour beam incidence. The revealed structure is found to influence the Knoop microhardness, DC conductivity and the effective refractive index by inducing in-plane anisotropy, which is most pronounced at high vapour incidence angles. The dependence of these properties on the vapour incidence is explained with the nanodimensionality of the film morphological features. Finally, it is shown how an excimer laser processing modifies both the structure and properties of the zirconia films.