SHI induced modification of ZnO thin film: Optical and structural studies

Thermally evaporated ZnO thin films have been irradiated with 100 MeV Au8+ ions at different fluence from 5 × 1011 ions/cm2 to 5 × 1013 ions/cm2. The optical and structural properties of the irradiated and pristine films were studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–visible absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and XRD. FTIR results showed that for low fluence, the transmittance of the film decreased and increased again at higher fluence but Zn–O bond remains unaffected by irradiation. As revealed from the absorption spectra, absorption edge is not changed by the irradiation but the optical absorption is increased. The AFM study of the films implied that roughness decreased at low fluence values up to 5 × 1012 ions/cm2 and at higher fluences the roughness increased