Synthesis and Characterization of Compositionally Complex (Gd/Ho/Er/Dy)2Zr2O7 Thin Film Combinatorial Library
Abstract
High-throughput synthesis and characterization of novel ceramic materials with improved thermomechanical properties and phase stability are needed to accelerate the discovery of next-generation thermal barrier materials. A combinatorial thin film material library of (GdDyHoEr)2Zr2O7 were created via combinatorial magnetron reactive sputtering with rare-earth/zirconium alloy targets. Structural, chemical, and thermal property characterization mapping across the four component composition space was performed and correlated with thermal transport measurements. Steady state thermoreflectance mapping identifies a pronounced minimum in thermal conductivity within the Dy/Gd-rich quadrant. This minimum does not coincide with either the equiatomic composition or the region predicted to exhibit maximum cation size disorder. Instead, it corresponds to the largest experimentally observed lattice parameter, despite deviating from Vegard-like chemical averaging, and is independent of grain size and whole-pattern microstrain. These observations suggest that the way the fluorite lattice accommodates compositional complexity, rather than cation size disorder alone, provides a more informative descriptor of thermal transport. Overall, this work establishes a high-throughput workflow for combinatorial thin-film synthesis and multimodal characterization, enabling the rapid identification of previously inaccessible structure-property relationships in compositionally complex ceramics.
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BibTeX
@misc{pearl2026synthesis,
title = {{Synthesis and Characterization of Compositionally Complex (Gd/Ho/Er/Dy)2Zr2O7 Thin Film Combinatorial Library}},
author = {Dalton A. Pearl and Jade Holliman Jr and Reece Emory and Joshua Safin and Aditya Raghavan and Kamyar Barakati and Andrew H. Jones and Ethan A. Scott and Jack C. Lasseter and Adam Corrao and Daniel Olds and Bruce Ravel and Sergei K. Kalinin and Patrick E. Hopkins and Katharine Page and Philip D. Rack},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.04074},
eprint = {2609.04074},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04074},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Synthesis and Characterization of Compositionally Complex (Gd/Ho/Er/Dy)2Zr2O7 Thin Film Combinatorial Library
AU - Dalton A. Pearl
AU - Jade Holliman Jr
AU - Reece Emory
AU - Joshua Safin
AU - Aditya Raghavan
AU - Kamyar Barakati
AU - Andrew H. Jones
AU - Ethan A. Scott
AU - Jack C. Lasseter
AU - Adam Corrao
AU - Daniel Olds
AU - Bruce Ravel
AU - Sergei K. Kalinin
AU - Patrick E. Hopkins
AU - Katharine Page
AU - Philip D. Rack
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.04074
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04074
AB - High-throughput synthesis and characterization of novel ceramic materials with improved thermomechanical properties and phase stability are needed to accelerate the discovery of next-generation thermal barrier materials. A combinatorial thin film material library of (GdDyHoEr)2Zr2O7 were created via combinatorial magnetron reactive sputtering with rare-earth/zirconium alloy targets. Structural, chemical, and thermal property characterization mapping across the four component composition space was performed and correlated with thermal transport measurements. Steady state thermoreflectance mapping identifies a pronounced minimum in thermal conductivity within the Dy/Gd-rich quadrant. This minimum does not coincide with either the equiatomic composition or the region predicted to exhibit maximum cation size disorder. Instead, it corresponds to the largest experimentally observed lattice parameter, despite deviating from Vegard-like chemical averaging, and is independent of grain size and whole-pattern microstrain. These observations suggest that the way the fluorite lattice accommodates compositional complexity, rather than cation size disorder alone, provides a more informative descriptor of thermal transport. Overall, this work establishes a high-throughput workflow for combinatorial thin-film synthesis and multimodal characterization, enabling the rapid identification of previously inaccessible structure-property relationships in compositionally complex ceramics.
ER -