Surface oxygen exchange between yttria-stabilised zirconia and a low-temperature oxygen rf-plasma

Isotope Exchange/Depth Profiling (IEDP) using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) has been used to determine the oxygen tracer diffusion and surface exchange coefficients of (100) oriented 9.5 mol% yttria stabilised zirconia single crystals. Exchange experiments performed with molecular oxygen are compared with the exchange using an oxygen plasma. The surface exchange coefficient for specimens in a plasma is up to 100 times higher compared to measurements with normal molecular oxygen. For the exchange experiments we used an inductively coupled radio frequency (rf) oxygen plasma with a maximum radio frequency power of 250 W. Double probe measurements and optical emission spectrometry are used for the characterisation of the plasma. The measured electron temperatures are within the range of 5–12 eV.