Jose, Lolly Maria and Kumar, V. V. Siva and Vayalil, Sarathlal Koyiloth and Sulania, Indra and Subramaniam, Ramesh T. and Anila, E. I. and Aravind, Arun (2024) Tuning variegated characteristics of NiO thin films via 50 keV nitrogen ion beam irradiation. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 35 (34). p. 2181. ISSN 0957-4522, DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-13879-5.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
In this study, a systematic analysis of the changes brought about by low-energy ion beam irradiation in NiO thin films has been carried out. NiO thin films, deposited on glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering method have been irradiated with 50 keV Nitrogen ions (N+) at varied ion fluence values. With N+ irradiation, the intensity of diffraction peak corresponding to (440) decreases up to ion fluence of 1 x 1016 ion/cm2 due to the irradiation-induced lattice damage. Furthermore, at the highest fluence (5 x 1016 ions/cm2), the dominancy of (400) is lost and the crystal structure is reoriented to (440) alignment. The low energy ion irradiation has caused a mitigation in thin film transmittance by 25% compared to unirradiated sample. A decrease in the 1LO mode observed from Raman spectroscopy accounts for the formation of Ni vacancy defects at the highest fluence. Ion beam irradiation is seen to tune the material bandgap. The observed reduction in bandgap with an increase in ion fluence can be correlated to the formation of shallow levels near the conduction band of the host material with ion fluence. Bigger grains of pristine NiO thin film are broken into smaller fragments at fluences 5 x 1015 and 1 x 1016 ions/cm2. AFM analysis revealed the smoothening of thin film surfaces due to the atomic diffusion arising from ion beam irradiation. The correlated results from structural and morphological analysis support the deposition of subsequent amounts of energy to the lattice and the consequent modifications in the thin film properties. NiO films can thus be tailored with different ion fluences, making them suitable for optical as well as energy storage applications.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Funders: | University of Kerala, Centre for Advanced Functional Materials (CAFM), Department of Physics, Bishop Moore College Mavelikara (004/SARD/2015/KSCSTE) ; (68217), Material Science Division of IUAC Delhi |
| Subjects: | Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > QC Physics |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Department of Physics |
| Depositing User: | Ms. Juhaida Abd Rahim |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Feb 2025 03:10 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Feb 2025 03:10 |
| URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/47258 |
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