Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is currently used in a variety of applications including oxygen sensors, fuel cells, coatings for semiconductor lasers, and buffer layers for high-temperature superconducting films. Thin films of YSZ have been grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, electrochemical vapor deposition, pulse-laser deposition (PLD), electron-beam evaporation, and sputtering. In this investigation, PLD was used to grow thin films of YSZ on (100) MgO substrates. This system proves to be an interesting example of relationships between interfaces and extrinsic dislocations in thin films of YSZ.In this experiment, a freshly cleaved (100) MgO substrate surface was prepared for deposition by cleaving a lmm-thick slice from a single-crystal MgO cube. The YSZ target material which contained 10mol% yttria was prepared from powders and sintered to 85% of theoretical density. The laser system used for the depositions was a Lambda Physik 210i excimer laser operating with KrF (λ=248nm, 1Hz repetition rate, average energy per pulse of 100mJ).
