Microstructural effects on electrical conductivity relaxation in nanoscale ceria thin films.

Microstructure evolution and electrical conductivity relaxation kinetics in highly textured and nanocrystalline dense ceria thin films (approximately 65 nm) are reported in this paper. Highly textured films were grown on sapphire c-plane substrates by molecular beam synthesis (MBS) with orientation relationship (111)CeO(2)parallel(0001)Al(2)O(3) and [110]CeO(2)parallel[1210]Al(2)O(3). No significant structural changes were observed in highly textured films even after extensive annealing at high temperature.