Data from: 3D nanoscale design of oxide morphology, anisotropy and chemical heterogeneity by glancing angle physical vapor deposition

Glancing angle deposition (GLAD) enables 3D control over bottom-up synthesis of highly tunable films with well-ordered yet complex nanostructures, such as inclined nanocolumn arrays with intercolumn nanoporosity or zig-zig columnar grains. Here we demonstrate the synthesis of crystallographically textured yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) zig-zag films with tunable morphology, porosity, chemistry, and elucidated the mechanisms governing nanostructure modulation during GLAD pulsed laser deposition (PLD).

A low oxygen partial pressure (P O₂ ) YSZ buffer layer enables (100)-textured growth on Si(100) substrates with native oxide, and this texture is preserved across GLAD-induced film morphological variations. By tuning the adatomic incidence angle (α) and P O₂ , we control the balance between ballistic shadowing and adatom surface diffusion, thereby determining transitions between vertical and inclined columnar grain growth.