A nuclear hyperfine study of hafnium zirconate system

Zr-doped HfO2 system has been studied with the nuclear probe technique time differential perturbed angular correlation (TDPAC). The effect of Zr-doping on the crystal structure of HfO2 has been investigated by doping the HfO2 matrix with 20 and 50 atom% of Zr. A mild and homogeneous chemical method was followed to prepare the doped samples so that the dopant Zr-atom gets uniformly distributed throughout the HfO2 matrix. It has been observed that the incorporation of Zr-atom into the HfO2 crystal system does not affect significantly up to 50 atom%. It has been explained in terms of similar arrangement of O-atoms around both Hf and Zr atoms in their oxide crystal structure.