Monoclinic zirconia films were deposited by spraying monoclinic zirconia granules on glass substrates in a low vacuum environment. In order to spray the granules through a nozzle, air and He were used to carry and accelerate the granules. Flow rates of air and He were varied in order to study their effect on granule velocity and deposition efficiency. For both air and He, granule velocity increased with their flow rate. For the same gas flow rate, granule velocity was much higher when He was used than when air was used. Variation of deposition efficiency according to the gas and gas flow rate was similar to that of granule velocity. Highest deposition efficiency was 1.87% which may be the highest deposition efficiency of ceramic films by room temperature spray of ceramic particles or granules to date. The results support that granule velocity is closely related to deposition efficiency. The deposited films were quite dense and retained the crystalline phase of the granules.

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Keywords: Granule spray in vacuum (GSV), Zirconia film, Deposition efficiency, Granule velocity, Process gas