Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), a ZrO2-Y2O3 solid solution that contains a large population of oxygen vacancies, is widely used in energy and industrial applications. Past computational studies correctly predicted the anion diffusivity but not the cation diffusivity, which is important for material processing and stability. One of the challenges lies in identifying a plausible configuration akin to the ground state in a glassy landscape. This is unlikely to come from random sampling of even a very large sample space, but the odds are much improved by incorporating packing preferences revealed by a modest sized configurational library established from empirical potential calculations. Ab initio calculations corroborated these preferences, which prove remarkably robust extending to the fifth cation-oxygen shell about 8 Å away. Yet because of frustration there are still rampant violations of packing preferences and charge neutrality in the ground state, and the approach toward it bears a close analogy to glass relaxations. Fast relaxations proceed by fast oxygen movement around cations, while slow relaxations require slow cation diffusion. The latter is necessarily cooperative because of strong coupling imposed by the long-range packing preferences.
Competing Mechanisms between Dislocation and Phase Transformation in Plastic Deformation of Single Crystalline Yttria-Stabilized Tetragonal Zirconia Nanopillars
Understanding Specimen- and Grain-Size Effects on Nanoscale Plastic Deformation Mechanisms and Mechanical Properties of Polycrystalline Yttria-Stabilized Tetragonal Zirconia Nanopillars
High-pressure structural and lattice-dynamics study of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia
Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology（广东以色列理工学院）；Technion-Israel Institute of Technology（以色列理工学院）；Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)（德国电子同步加速器）；Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute（日本同步辐射研究所）；Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院上海高等研究院）
Hillock formation of Pt thin films on Yttria stabilized Zirconia single crystals
介电基片上金属薄膜的稳定性取决于界面相互作用力的大小。在非反应性界面和弱粘附的情况下，自由表面能的最小化引起薄膜的不稳定性。为了研究这些影响，Pt薄膜的厚度为50 nm的沉积通过离子束溅射氧化钇稳定的氧化锆单晶。所有的Pt膜进行热处理高达973 K 2小时。利用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、原子力显微镜（AFM）和标准图像分析技术研究了Pt薄膜的形貌演化。已经进行了三个主要观察：i）沉积方法对退火期间膜的形态演变具有直接影响。代替通常作为对热处理的响应而观察到的空穴形成，在膜的顶部上形成各向异性金字塔形的小丘。ii）通过比较小丘的长宽比和有限元模拟结果，表明小丘的形成是由于薄膜内部的应力松弛过程。iii）通过测量所形成的Pt丘的平衡形状和形状起伏，除了丘边缘的各向异性扭结能之外，还导出了台阶自由能及其刚度的各向异性。
