Structural and surface microstructure evolutions in SnO thin films under ion irradiation

This paper gives detailed investigations on the deposition of SnO thin films, on glass substrates, using RF sputtering technique. To check the stability of SnO phase, under high energy ion irradiation, swift heavy ion (SHI) beam irradiation experiments are performed using 150 MeV Au beams. The effect of irradiation, with three irradiation fluences i.e. 1 x 10(11), 1 x 10(12), and 5 x 10(12) ions/cm(2), is investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and Atomic force microscopy (AFM). The possible mechanism of the structural changes (tetragonal SnO (space group P4/nmm) to orthorhombic SnO (space group Cmc2(1))) and surface microstructure evolutions is briefly discussed in the light of ion's energy and energy loss processes. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.