Study on swift heavy ions induced modifications of Ag-ZnO nanocomposite thin film

In the present work, swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation induced modifications in structural and optical properties of Ag-ZnO nanocomposite thin films have been investigated. Ag-ZnO nanocomposite (NCs) thin films were synthesized by RF magnetron sputtering technique and irradiated with 100 MeV Ag7+ ions at three different fluences 3 x 10(12), 1 x 10(13) and 3 x 10(13) ions/cm(2). Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry revealed Ag concentration to be similar to 8.0 at.%, and measured thickness of the films was similar to 55 nm. Structural properties of pristine and irradiated films have been analyzed by X-ray diffraction analysis and found that variation in crystallite size of the film with ion irradiation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates the formation of Ag-ZnO nanocomposite thin film with presence of Ag, Zn and 0 elements. Oxidation state of Ag and Zn also estimated by XPS analysis. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of Ag nanoparticle has appeared at similar to 475 nm in the pristine thin film, which is blue shifted by similar to 30 nm in film irradiated at fluence of 3 x 10(12) ions/cm(2) and completely disappeared in film irradiated at higher fluences, 1 x 10(13) and 3 x 10(13) ions/cm(2). A marginal change in the optical band gap of Ag-ZnO nanocomposite thin film is also found with increasing ion fluence. Surface morphology of pristine and irradiated films have been studied using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Raman and Photo-luminance (PL) spectra of nanocomposite thin films have been investigated to understand the ion induced modifications such as lattice defects and disordering in the nanocomposite thin film. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.