Growth characterizations and ion beam induced modifications in zirconium oxide thin films

Abstract

The prospective of the thesis is to synthesize and modify the properties of nanocrystalline zirconium oxide (ZrO2) thin films using high and low energy ion beam irradiation. The various properties of the deposited thin films can be enhanced by doping, annealing, swift heavy ion beam irradiation, ion implantation, gamma irradiation. Herein, we have used high energy and low energy ion beam to create the modifications in ZrO2 thin films. The ion beam irradiation of the sample was carried out using Pelletron Accelerator that can withstand for future aspects in different field of applications. Among the class of different metal oxide, zirconium oxide is one the best candidate with excellent properties. Various techniques can be used to deposit the ZrO2 thin films such as atomic layer deposition, direct current magnetron sputtering, sol gel method, electron beam evaporation deposition, RF magnetron sputtering, electrochemical deposition, pulsed laser deposition and dual frequency oxygen plasma sputtering. RF magnetron sputtering provides good uniformity and control over deposition rate. Hence, RF sputtering was used to deposit the nanocrystalline ZrO2 thin films on Si and glass substrates. The optical properties of the pristine and irradiated samples were investigated using the samples deposited on glass substrate. The deposited samples were annealed to 500 600 and#8304; C to improve their crystallinity