Tetragonal zirconia growth by nanolaminate formation

Abstract
Multilayer films of polycrystalline zirconia and amorphous alumina were grown by reactive sputter deposition and characterized using x-ray diffraction and high resolution electron microscopy. We demonstrate that the layer spacing can be scaled to insure nanosize crystallites in the zirconia layer. The result is that nanolaminates with a high volume fraction of retained tetragonal zirconia are produced, independent of deposition parameters and without the addition of a stabilizing dopant.