Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 13: Poster: Interfaces and Thin Films

CPP 13.12: Poster

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 18:15–20:45, Poster A

Microfabrication and characterization of stress-reduced YSZ membranes — •Florian Kuhl, Markus Piechotka, Torsten Henning, Daniel Reppin, Peter J. Klar, and Bruno K. Meyer — I. Physikalisches Institut, Justus Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 16, 35392 Giessen

The oxygen conductor YSZ (Yttria-stabilized-zirconia) is a material often used as electrolyte for solid oxide fuell cells. To achieve a higher packing density and to optimize the currents it is necessary to miniaturize the fuel cell components, especially to reduce the thickness of the solid electrolyte. Another application of very thin YSZ films may be their utilization as ion source. Si wafers were locally pre-thinned by photolithography and crystallographic etching to provide pre-thinned areas on which the YSZ thin film was deposited by RF sputtering. Free standing membranes were created by wet chemical etching of the thinned portions of the wafer using a variety of masking patterns defined by electron beam lithography and optimized to reduce stress induced cracking. Since the growth of the YSZ is not completely free of stress, membrane crack issues were observable. We show how the fabrication influences the stress of the sputtered YSZ. For characterization of the fabricated membranes we used light- and laser microscopy as well as SEM and AFM. Additionally, we applied Raman mapping to see how the stress of the YSZ membranes changes the behavior of the Raman modes.