Influence of γ-irradiation on optical parameters of electron beam evaporated ZnSe1−xTex nanocrystalline thin films

Abstract

In the present paper, we reported the effect of γ-irradiation with different doses (100–300 kGy) on the optical parameters of nanocrystalline ZnSe1−xTex (x=0.0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0) thin films. In the wavelength range 400–2500 nm, the optical parameters of the as-deposited and γ-irradiated were extracted from transmission spectra using the Swanepoel method. It was found that the refractive index of the investigated films increases with increasing the doses of γ-radiation. Such post-irradiation increase in the refractive index was attributed to the increase of the density of the investigated films with irradiation doses due to structure transformation induced by thermal effects during irradiation. In addition, the refractive index dispersions of both as-deposited and γ-irradiated of nanocrystalline ZnSe0.8Te0.2 films are found to follow the single oscillator model. The calculated single oscillator parameters; oscillator strength Ed, static refractive index no, increased after irradiation while the oscillator energy Eo, reduced after irradiation. The absorption coefficient was found to increase with the increase of the doses of γ-radiation. Furthermore, the obtained optical energy gap of nanocrystalline ZnSe1−xTex films was found to decrease with increasing the doses of the γ-radiation which is attributed to the increase of the telluride (Te) atoms or defects after irradiation. This is confirmed by the decrease in the Urbach energy Ee after radiation. The γ-irradiation stimulated increase in the absorption coefficient and change in the optical parameters, which can be utilized for industrial dosimetric and detector purposes.