Investigation of the growth of In2O3 on Y-stabilized ZrO2(100) by oxygen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Thin films of In2O3 have been grown on Y-stabilised ZrO2(100) substrates by oxygen plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy over a range of substrate temperatures between 650 °C and 900 °C. Growth at 650 °C leads to continuous but granular films and complete extinction of substrate core level structure in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. However with increasing substrate temperature the films break up into a series of discrete micrometer sized islands. Both the continuous and the island films have excellent epitaxial relationship with the substrate as gauged by X-ray diffraction and selected area electron diffraction and lattice imaging in high resolution transmission electron microscopy.