Modification Of Nanocrystalline RF Sputtered Tin Oxide Thin Film Using SHI Irradiation

¹Department of Physics, R.B.S. College, Agra 282 002, India

²Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi 110 067, India

³Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar 750 005, India

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2013, Ion Beam Special Issue, 4 (6), pp 428-432

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2012.ib.108

Publication Date (Web): Mar 16, 2013

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: vijaykumar.ibs@gmail.com

Abstract

Nano crystalline tin oxide thin films were deposited on Si and quartz substrates using R. F. magnetron sputtering technique. A set of films was annealed in oxygen environment. These as-deposited and annealed films were irradiated using 100 MeV Ag ions at different fluences ranging from 3×10¹¹ to 3×10¹³ ions/cm². The structural, optical and surface morphological properties of films were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. As deposited films showed the polycrystalline nature and annealing enhances the crystallinity along a particular plane. Upon irradiation at lower fluences up to 3×1012 ions/cm², reduction in crystallinity is observed but at highest fluence 1×10¹³ ions/cm² a small increase in crystallinity occurs as inferred from XRD spectra. UV-Vis study showed red shift at the lower fluences and blue shift at higher fluences. The pristine film, as observed in AFM micrograph, has randomly distributed surface nano structures with broader size distribution. Irradiation induces the formation of regular shape structures with narrow size distribution. These results may be attributed to the energy deposited by swift heavy ions in the film.

Keywords

Tin oxide thin film, nanostructures, nanocrystals, RF sputtering, annealing, swift heavy ion irradiation.