Patent ID: 7087266

Claim:
A method of forming a thermal barrier coating on a surface of a component, the method comprising the step of: forming the thermal barrier coating by evaporating one or more ingots that in combination provide sources of yttria-stabilized zirconia, a carbon-containing material chosen from the group consisting of graphite and carbides, and at least a third oxide so that vapors thereof deposit to form a thermal-insulating material comprising yttria-stabilized zirconia and the third oxide, elemental carbon clusters in the thermal-insulating material, and porosity surrounding the elemental carbon clusters created as a result of zirconia vapor flux being blocked from the immediate vicinity of the elemental carbon clusters, the third oxide being selected from the group consisting of ceria, magnesia, calcia, strontia, barium oxide, lanthana, neodymia, gadolinium oxide, dysprosia, ytterbia and tantala, the third oxide being present in the thermal-insulating material in an amount sufficient to increase lattice strain energy of grains of the thermal barrier coating.