Thin-film reactions in ceramic systems are of increasing importance as materials such as oxide superconductors and ferroelectrics are applied in thin-film form. In fact, reactions have been found to occur during the growth of YBa2Cu3O6+x on ZrO2. Additionally, thin-film reactions have also been intentionally initiated for the production of buffer layers for the subsequent growth of high-Tc superconductor thin films. The problem is that the kinetics of ceramic thin-film reactions are not well understood when the reaction layer is very thin; that is, when the rate-limiting step is a phase-boundary reaction as opposed to diffusion of the reactants through the product layer. In this case, the reaction layer is likely to be laterally non-uniform. In the present study, the measurement of thin reaction-product layers is accomplished by first digitally acquiring backscattered-electron images in a high-resolution field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) followed by image analysis. Furthermore, the problem of measuring such small thicknesses (e.g., 20-500nm) over lengths of interfaces longer than 3mm is addressed.
