Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-9457-6 Efect of low energy (keV) ion irradiation on structural, optical and morphological properties of SnO 2 –TiO 2 nanocomposite thin flms Vikas Kumar 1  · M. K. Jaiswal 2  · Rashi Gupta 1  · Jagjeevan Ram 1  · Indra Sulania 3  · Sunil Ojha 3  · Xin Sun 4  · N. Koratkar 5  · Rajesh Kumar 1 Received: 10 March 2018 / Accepted: 8 June 2018 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract RF Sputtering deposition technique was used to deposit the thin flms of nanocomposite oxides as SnO 2 –TiO 2 on Si and ITO coated glass substrate. As a target, SnO 2 –TiO 2 was taken according to their molecular weight percent ratio of 3:1. Material modifcation has been induced by low energy ion beam with varying ion fuence from 5E13 to 5E16 ions/cm 2 . Glancing Angle X-ray Difraction technique was used to study crystallite size, phase transformation and stability of diferent planes of pristine and irradiated thin flms. The important peaks observed in XRD pattern were at angles 26.95°, 34.27°, 37.60°, 50.88° and 52.46°. The grain size distribution and surface morphology were studied by Atomic Force Microscopy technique in tapping mode. The results show that the grain size varies with ion fuence. Raman analysis revealed that the sharp peak at the frequency of 520 cm −1 ascribed to the T 2g mode was observed for the pristine and lowest fuence irradiated flm deposited on Si substrate. With increasing ion fuence, an opposite trend in SnO 2 B 2g peak was observed at nearly 775 cm −1 and the also peak bump was observed as a function of ion beam fuence. The optical band gap decreases from 3.90 to 3.63 eV due to the generation of ions and free radicals in valance band by varying ion fuence which was observed by UV/Visible Spec- troscopy. The flm thickness was determined to be 220 nm using Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry. It also confrmed the absence of any impurities in the pristine and irradiated thin flms. The material properties were mainly modifed by the point defects and grain size growth arising due to nuclear energy loss. 1 Introduction Nanocomposite with tailored properties has diferent appli- cations in many felds. Nanocomposites are the materials having unique properties that are otherwise unattainable. The nanoscale structure of the materials improves the mac- roscopic properties of products. The properties of nano- composites are governed by the properties of the constitu- ent phases, their relative quantities and the geometry. There are many oxide materials such as Cu 2 O, TiO 2 , ZnO, SnO 2 , Bi 2 O 3 etc. which are used to make nanocomposites as they possess the required unique properties like wide band gap [1–4]. In our studies, we have chosen two oxide based mate- rials, Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and Tin oxide (SnO 2 ). Both oxide materials have tetragonal rutile structure and high melting point etc. Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and Tin oxide (SnO 2 ) play an important role because of their technologi- cal performance, physical, chemical, optical and magnetic properties. Titanium dioxide and Tin oxide have a wide band gap of 3.02 and 3.60 eV at 300 K respectively and same oxidation state [5, 6]. SnO 2 possesses properties like high * Rajesh Kumar kumarrrpi@gmail.com 1 University School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi 110078, India 2 Department of Physics, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women (University of Delhi), New Delhi 110096, India 3 Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 110067, India 4 Center for Materials, Devices and Integrated Systems (CMDIS), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA 5 Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA