J Mater Sci Technol ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (8): 700-706.

• Thin Film and Coaatings • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of Ni7+ Ion Irradiation on Structure and Ammonia Sensing Properties of Thermally Oxidized Zinc and Indium Films

Amandeep Kaur Bal, Rajinder Singh, R.K. Bedi   

  1. Material Science Laboratory, Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143 005, India
  • Received:2011-12-09 Revised:2012-03-14 Online:2012-08-31 Published:2012-08-30
  • Contact: Amandeep Kaur Bal

Abstract:

ZnO and In2O3 films were prepared by thermal oxidation of vacuum deposited zinc and indium films, respectively onto the glass substrate at 30 °C. The fabricated films have been irradiated with 100-MeV Ni7+ ions at different fluences ranging from 5×1011 to 5×1013 ions/cm2. The structural and gas sensing properties of pristine and irradiated films have been discussed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of pristine and irradiated films reveal that the films are polycrystalline in nature and crystallinity increases after irradiation. In this study,  highly porous In2O3 nanorods evolved when being irradiated at a fluence of 5×1013 ions/cm2 while ZnO film shows decrease in number of nanowires. The ammonia sensing performance of the Ni7+ irradiated In2O3 films
shows an improvement as compared to its pristine counterpart.

Key words: Thermal oxidation, ZnO film, In2O3 film, Ion irradiation, Gas sensing