Anomalous Epitaxial Growth in Thermally Sprayed YSZ and LZ Splats

Thermally sprayed coatings are essentially layered materials, and lamellar interfaces are of great importance to coatings' performances. In the present study, to investigate the microstructures and defect features at thermally sprayed coating interfaces, homoepitaxial 8 mol.% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and heteroepitaxial lanthanum zirconia (LZ) films were fabricated. The epitaxial interfaces were examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM) in detail. As a result, we report, for the first time, an anomalous incommensurate homoepitaxial growth with mismatch-induced dislocations in thermally sprayed YSZ splats to create a homointerface. We also find the anomalous heteroepitaxial growth in thermally sprayed LZ splats. The mechanism of the anomalous incommensurate growth was analyzed in detail. Essentially, it is a pseudo-heteroepitaxy because of the lattice mismatch between the film and the locally heated substrate, as the locally heated substrate is significantly strained by its cold surroundings. Moreover, the super-high-density dislocations were found in the interfacial region, which resulted from sufficient thermal fluctuations and extremely rapid cooling rates. Both the anomalous lattice mismatch and super-high-density dislocations lead to weak interfaces and violent cracking in thermally sprayed coatings. These were also the essential differences between the conventional and the present epitaxy by thermal spray technique.