The effect of thickness and film homogeneity on the optical and microstructures of the ZrO2 thin films prepared by electron beam evaporation method

Abstract

In this study, ZrO₂ coatings with different thicknesses were grown by the electron beam evaporation technique. The crystalline structure was studied by XRD analysis which suggested the tetragonal and monoclinic phases for ZrO₂ coatings. Additionally, the film thickness slightly enhanced the crystallinity. The surface morphology and fractal features were analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The surface statistical parameters and the fractal geometry were employed to analyze the impact of the coating thickness and homogeneity on the morphology of the films. The statistical processing and fractal dimension revealed variations in the morphology parameters due to the electron beam evaporation method applied for different thicknesses of samples. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the surface microtexture and fractal dimension area correlated with the thickness and homogeneity of the crystalline structure.