Opto-electronic and morphological alteration in SnO_2/Au/SnO_2 thin film as a result of 120 MeV Ni~(10+) irradiation for TCE application

摘要

Herein, the study of electrical and morphological properties of SnO_2/Au/SnO_2 thin film is presented. The stacked multilayers were deposited on Si (100)/SiO_2 substrate by e-beam evaporation using standard SnO_2 and Au targets to get a total thickness of ～75 nm. Aluminum mask was used to create an interface between pristine and 120 MeV Ni~(10+) irradiated (fluence-1×10~(12) and 5×10~(12) ions/cm~2) region. Irradiation resulted in an increase in roughness of film from 1.21 nm to 3.03 nm. The current-voltage characteristics taken at pristine irradiated and at the interface of the pristine-irradiated region showed ohmic behavior with the interface showing better conductivity. Hall measurements show decrease in electrical resistivity from 2.2 × 10~(-4) Ω-cm to 1.04 × 10~(-4) Ω-cm post irradiation for films irradiated with 120 MeV 10~(12) Ni~(10+) ions/cm~2. The optical study shows a decrease in transparency (80.97% to 78.56%) and increases in refractive index post irradiation. The possible mechanism for morphological and optoelectronic variation in the irradiated region is discussed in the manuscript.