Effect of silicon doping in HFO₂ nanoparticles from an atomic view

We have prepared the Hafnium Oxide (HfO₂) nanoparticles (NPs) doped with 5% at. of silicon (Si) using the sol-gel chemical method. Nuclear quadrupole interactions at Hf sites were investigated by perturbed γ–γ angular correlations (PAC) spectroscopy using ¹⁸¹Ta as probe nuclei. This method is based on the hyperfine interactions between the nuclear moments of the probe nuclei with extra-nuclear magnetic fields or electric field gradients (EFGs). In the case of quadrupolar electric interactions, experimental measurements give the quadrupole frequency ν_Q with respective distribution (δ) as well the asymmetry parameter η of of the EFG. The hyperfine parameters were measured within the range from 200°C to 900°C. The structural and morphological characterization of the samples were carried out by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD). PAC results show a major site fraction of probe nuclei, that was assigned to the monoclinic phase of HfO₂, with approximately 60% population, which increases when the temperature of heat treatment increases. The XRD results showed a single phase with the expected monoclinic structure for the as-prepared samples indicating that Si atoms are at substitutional Hf sites. (author)