High energy (MeV) ion beam induced modifications in Al2O3-ZnO multilayers thin films grown by ALD and enhancement in photoluminescence, optical and structural properties

Abstract

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is employed for the growth of nanometric conformal layers on distinct substrates. In the present work, we demonstrated the attainable consequences on the examination of optical and structural peculiarities of pristine and SHI (swift heavy ions) irradiated ultrathin multilayer samples of Al2O3-ZnO fabricated on glass and silicon substrates using the technique based on ALD. Multilayer Al2O3-ZnO specimens were irradiated with 100 MeV SHI in the fluence range of 1E12 to 5E13 ions/cm2. For a better conception of the impact of ion beam irradiation with high energy on structural parameters like strain, dislocation density, crystallite size was demonstrated by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The coefficient of absorption was used to demonstrate the changes that occur in optical bandgap, urbach energy, skin depth and optical density with the function of ion fluence. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra were investigated at room temperature to comprehend the mechanism of changes in peak shifting and intensity of broad and strong emission luminescence spectra at excitation wavelengths of 300 nm were noteworthy. To evaluate the thickness, crystalline quality and quantitative composition of the elements Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS) employing utilizing the He2+ with high energy was used and reported. Regulation of optical peculiarities through swift heavy ion beam irradiation explores extensive opportunities for Al2O3-ZnO multilayer nanofabrication in optoelectronics domain.