Formation of defect, oxygen vacancy creation, and shifting of phonon mode by Li3+ swift heavy ion irradiation on Zn1 − x Mn x O thin films

Abstract

Thin films of pure, Mn-substituted ZnO were synthesized by dip coating technique and irradiated thin films by Li3+ swift heavy ions (SHIs) with fluence 5 × 1012 ions/cm2. The XRD peaks revealed that all the samples exhibit hexagonal (wurtzite phase, P63 mc group) structures. The extra peaks were observed in XRD patterns, but after SHI irradiation, peaks were disappeared due to inelastic scattering. Pure ZnO manifests large spherical grain-shaped morphology after Li3+ SHI irradiation with fluence 5 × 1012 ions/cm2 as compared to pristine sample. The Mn-substituted ZnO thin films showed the rod-like shape and nanowire-like configuration for 5% after SHI irradiation. Raman spectra of the SHI-irradiated samples show oxygen vacancies, and also, phonon mode shifted to the blue shift as compared to pristine sample. Electrical properties were investigated by I–V measurements, which show that enhancement in conductivity as Mn content as well as SHI irradiation increased. Optical properties have been elaborated by UV-Vis, which confirm red shifting of the absorption edge after SHI irradiation.