Zirconium and zirconia thin films prepared on NaCl by ion beam deposition

Nanocrystalline condensates were deposited on the NaCl (1 0 0) plane at 25–450 °C by radio frequency ion beam sputtering from a pure 99.9% Zr disk. The nanocondensates were identified by transmission electron microscopy to be quasi-amorphous α-Zr, α-Zr + ZrO and α-Zr + ZrO + c-ZrO2 phase assemblages with increasing substrate temperature. At 400 °C and under 1–20 sccm oxygen, c- and t-ZrO2 nanocondensates were assembled on NaCl (1 0 0) and showed strong preferred orientation. The c- and/or t-ZrO2 were retained by small grain size, low-valence Zr cation and 2D matrix constraint of the film.