Swift heavy ion induced surface modification for tailoring coercivity in Fe–Ni based amorphous thin films

Fe–Ni based amorphous thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation. These films were irradiated by 108 MeV Ag8+ ions at room temperature with fluences ranging from 1 1012 to 3 1013 ions/cm2 using a 15 UD Pelletron accelerator. Glancing angle x-ray diffraction studies showed that the irradiated films retain their amorphous nature. The topographical evolution of the films under swift heavy ion SHI bombardment was probed using atomic force microscope and it was noticed that surface roughening was taking place with ion beam irradiation. Magnetic measurements using a vibrating sample magnetometer showed that the coercivity of the films increases with an increase in the ion fluence. The observed coercivity changes are correlated with topographical evolution of the films under SHI irradiation. The ability to modify the magnetic properties via SHI irradiation could be utilized for applications in thin film magnetism

Swift heavy ion induced surface and microstructural evolution in metallic glass thin films

Swift heavy ion induced changes in microstructure and surface morphology of vapor deposited Fe–Ni based metallic glass thin films have been investigated by using atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Ion beam irradiation was carried out at room temperature with 103 MeV Au9+ beam with fluences ranging from 3 1011 to 3 1013 ions/cm2. The atomic force microscopy images were subjected to power spectral density analysis and roughness analysis using an image analysis software. Clusters were found in the image of as-deposited samples, which indicates that the film growth is dominated by the island growth mode. As-deposited films were amorphous as evidenced from X-ray diffraction; however, high resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements revealed a short range atomic order in the samples with crystallites of size around 3 nm embedded in an amorphous matrix. X-ray diffraction pattern of the as-deposited films after irradiation does not show any appreciable changes, indicating that the passage of swift heavy ions stabilizes the short range atomic ordering, or even creates further amorphization. The crystallinity of the as-deposited Fe–Ni based films was improved by thermal annealing, and diffraction results indicated that ion beam irradiation on annealed samples results in grain fragmentation. On bombarding annealed films, the surface roughness of the films decreased initially, then, at higher fluences it increased. The observed change in surface morphology of the irradiated films is attributed to the interplay between ion induced sputtering, volume diffusion and surface diffusion

Spray Pyrolysed Zinc Oxide Thin Films : Effects of Doping and Ion Beam Irradiation

In recent years scientists have made rapid and significant advances in the field of semiconductor physics. One of the most important fields of current interest in materials science is the fundamental aspects and applications of conducting transparent oxide thin films (TCO). The characteristic properties of such coatings are low electrical resistivity and high transparency in the visible region. The first semitransparent and electrically conducting CdO film was reported as early as in 1907 [1]. Though early work on these films was performed out of purely scientific interest, substantial technological advances in such films were made after 1940. The technological interest in the study of transparent semiconducting films was generated mainly due to the potential applications of these materials both in industry and research. Such films demonstrated their utility as transparent electrical heaters for windscreens in the aircraft industry. However, during the last decade, these conducting transparent films have been widely used in a variety of other applications such as gas sensors [2], solar cells [3], heat reflectors [4], light emitting devices [5] and laser damage resistant coatings in high power laser technology [6]. Just a few materials dominate the current TCO industry and the two dominant markets for TCO’s are in architectural applications and flat panel displays. The architectural use of TCO is for energy efficient windows. Fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO), deposited using a pyrolysis process is the TCO usually finds maximum application. SnO2 also finds application ad coatings for windows, which are efficient in preventing radiative heat loss, due to low emissivity (0.16). Pyrolitic tin oxide is used in PV modules, touch screens and plasma displays. However indium tin oxide (ITO) is mostly used in the majority of flat panel display (FPD) applications. In FPDs, the basic function of ITO is as transparent electrodes. The volume of FPD’s produced, and hence the volume of ITO coatings produced, continues to grow rapidly. But the current increase in the cost of indium and the scarcity of this material created the difficulty in obtaining low cost TCOs. Hence search for alternative TCO materials has been a topic of active research for the last few decades. This resulted in the development of binary materials like ZnO, SnO2, CdO and ternary materials like II Zn2SnO4, CdSb2O6:Y, ZnSO3, GaInO3 etc. The use of multicomponent oxide materials makes it possible to have TCO films suitable for specialized applications because by altering their chemical compositions, one can control the electrical, optical, chemical and physical properties. But the advantages of using binary materials are the easiness to control the chemical compositions and depositions conditions. Recently, there were reports claiming the deposition of CdO:In films with a resistivity of the order of 10-5 ohm cm for flat panel displays and solar cells. However they find limited use because of Cd-Toxicity. In this regard, ZnO films developed in 1980s, are very useful as these use Zn, an abundant, inexpensive and nontoxic material. Resistivity of this material is still not very low, but can be reduced through doping with group-III elements like In, Al or Ga or with F [6]. Hence there is a great interest in ZnO as an alternative of ITO. In the present study, we prepared and characterized transparent and conducting ZnO thin films, using a cost effective technique viz Chemical Spray Pyrolysis (CSP). This technique is also suitable for large area film deposition. It involves spraying a solution, (usually aqueous) containing soluble salts of the constituents of the desired compound, onto a heated substrate.

Effects and Modifications in In/Se and In/Sb Systems by Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation

Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Fabrication of thin films and nano columnar structures of Fe-Ni amorphous alloys and modification of its surface properties by thermal annealing and swift heavy ion irradiation for tailoring the magnetic properties

Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

On the Tailoring of Magnetic Properties of Fe-Based Alloy Thin Films by Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation and Thermal Annealing

The development of new materials has been the hall mark of human civilization. The quest for making new devices and new materials has prompted humanity to pursue new methods and techniques that eventually has given birth to modern science and technology. With the advent of nanoscience and nanotechnology, scientists are trying hard to tailor materials by varying their size and shape rather than playing with the composition of the material. This, along with the discovery of new and sophisticated imaging tools, has led to the discovery of several new classes of materials like (3D) Graphite, (2D) graphene, (1D) carbon nanotubes, (0D) fullerenes etc. Magnetic materials are in the forefront of applications and have beencontributing their share to remove obsolescence and bring in new devices based on magnetism and magnetic materials. They find applications in various devices such as electromagnets, read heads, sensors, antennas, lubricants etc. Ferromagnetic as well as ferrimagnetic materials have been in use in the form of various devices. Among the ferromagnetic materials iron, cobalt and nickel occupy an important position while various ferrites finds applications in devices ranging from magnetic cores to sensors.

Tailoring Magnetic Properties of Co-Fe Thin Films by Topographical Modifications Using Thermal Annealing and Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation and Fabrication of Magnetoelectric Multilayers for Device Applications

Magnetism and magnetic materials have been playing a lead role in improving the quality of life. They are increasingly being used in a wide variety of applications ranging from compasses to modern technological devices. Metallic glasses occupy an important position among magnetic materials. They assume importance both from a scientific and an application point of view since they represent an amorphous form of condensed matter with significant deviation from thermodynamic equilibrium. Metallic glasses having good soft magnetic properties are widely used in tape recorder heads, cores of high-power transformers and metallic shields. Superconducting metallic glasses are being used to produce high magnetic fields and magnetic levitation effect. Upon heat treatment, they undergo structural relaxation leading to subtle rearrangements of constituent atoms. This leads to densification of amorphous phase and subsequent nanocrystallisation. The short-range structural relaxation phenomenon gives rise to significant variations in physical, mechanical and magnetic properties. Magnetic amorphous alloys of Co-Fe exhibit excellent soft magnetic properties which make them promising candidates for applications as transformer cores, sensors, and actuators. With the advent of microminiaturization and nanotechnology, thin film forms of these alloys are sought after for soft under layers for perpendicular recording media. The thin film forms of these alloys can also be used for fabrication of magnetic micro electro mechanical systems (magnetic MEMS). In bulk, they are drawn in the form of ribbons, often by melt spinning. The main constituents of these alloys are Co, Fe, Ni, Si, Mo and B. Mo acts as the grain growth inhibitor and Si and B facilitate the amorphous nature in the alloy structure. The ferromagnetic phases such as Co-Fe and Fe-Ni in the alloy composition determine the soft magnetic properties. The grain correlation length, a measure of the grain size, often determines the soft magnetic properties of these alloys. Amorphous alloys could be restructured in to their nanocrystalline counterparts by different techniques. The structure of nanocrystalline material consists of nanosized ferromagnetic crystallites embedded in an amorphous matrix. When the amorphous phase is ferromagnetic, they facilitate exchange coupling between nanocrystallites. This exchange coupling results in the vanishing of magnetocrystalline anisotropy which improves the soft magnetic properties. From a fundamental perspective, exchange correlation length and grain size are the deciding factors that determine the magnetic properties of these nanocrystalline materials. In thin films, surfaces and interfaces predominantly decides the bulk property and hence tailoring the surface roughness and morphology of the film could result in modified magnetic properties. Surface modifications can be achieved by thermal annealing at various temperatures. Ion irradiation is an alternative tool to modify the surface/structural properties. The surface evolution of a thin film under swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation is an outcome of different competing mechanism. It could be sputtering induced by SHI followed by surface roughening process and the material transport induced smoothening process. The impingement of ions with different fluence on the alloy is bound to produce systematic microstructural changes and this could effectively be used for tailoring magnetic parameters namely coercivity, saturation magnetization, magnetic permeability and remanence of these materials. Swift heavy ion irradiation is a novel and an ingenious tool for surface modification which eventually will lead to changes in the bulk as well as surface magnetic property. SHI has been widely used as a method for the creation of latent tracks in thin films. The bombardment of SHI modifies the surfaces or interfaces or creates defects, which induces strain in the film. These changes will have profound influence on the magnetic anisotropy and the magnetisation of the specimen. Thus inducing structural and morphological changes by thermal annealing and swift heavy ion irradiation, which in turn induce changes in the magnetic properties of these alloys, is one of the motivation of this study. Multiferroic and magneto-electrics is a class of functional materials with wide application potential and are of great interest to material scientists and engineers. Magnetoelectric materials combine both magnetic as well as ferroelectric properties in a single specimen. The dielectric properties of such materials can be controlled by the application of an external magnetic field and the magnetic properties by an electric field. Composites with magnetic and piezo/ferroelectric individual phases are found to have strong magnetoelectric (ME) response at room temperature and hence are preferred to single phasic multiferroic materials. Currently research in this class of materials is towards optimization of the ME coupling by tailoring the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive properties of the two individual components of ME composites. The magnetoelectric coupling constant (MECC) (_ ME) is the parameter that decides the extent of interdependence of magnetic and electric response of the composite structure. Extensive investigates have been carried out in bulk composites possessing on giant ME coupling. These materials are fabricated by either gluing the individual components to each other or mixing the magnetic material to a piezoelectric matrix. The most extensively investigated material combinations are Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) or Lead Magnesium Niobate-Lead Titanate (PMNPT) as the piezoelectric, and Terfenol-D as the magnetostrictive phase and the coupling is measured in different configurations like transverse, longitudinal and inplane longitudinal. Fabrication of a lead free multiferroic composite with a strong ME response is the need of the hour from a device application point of view. The multilayer structure is expected to be far superior to bulk composites in terms of ME coupling since the piezoelectric (PE) layer can easily be poled electrically to enhance the piezoelectricity and hence the ME effect. The giant magnetostriction reported in the Co-Fe thin films makes it an ideal candidate for the ferromagnetic component and BaTiO3 which is a well known ferroelectric material with improved piezoelectric properties as the ferroelectric component. The multilayer structure of BaTiO3- CoFe- BaTiO3 is an ideal system to understand the underlying fundamental physics behind the ME coupling mechanism. Giant magnetoelectric coupling coefficient is anticipated for these multilayer structures of BaTiO3-CoFe-BaTiO3. This makes it an ideal candidate for cantilever applications in magnetic MEMS/NEMS devices. SrTiO3 is an incipient ferroelectric material which is paraelectric up to 0K in its pure unstressed form. Recently few studies showed that ferroelectricity can be induced by application of stress or by chemical / isotopic substitution. The search for room temperature magnetoelectric coupling in SrTiO3-CoFe-SrTiO3 multilayer structures is of fundamental interest. Yet another motivation of the present work is to fabricate multilayer structures consisting of CoFe/ BaTiO3 and CoFe/ SrTiO3 for possible giant ME coupling coefficient (MECC) values. These are lead free and hence promising candidates for MEMS applications. The elucidation of mechanism for the giant MECC also will be the part of the objective of this investigation.

Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation and Thermal Annealing Induced Modification of Structural, Topographical and Magnetic Properties in Monolayer and Bilayer Films Based on FeNiMoB and Zinc Ferrite

Magnetism and magnetic materials have been playing a lead role in the day to day life of human beings. The human kind owes its gratitude to the ‘lodestone’ meaning ‘leading stone’ which lead to the discovery of nations and the onset of modern civilizations. If it was William Gilbert, who first stated that ‘earth was a giant magnet’, then it was the turn of Faraday who correlated electricity and magnetism. Magnetic materials find innumerable applications in the form of inductors, read and write heads, motors, storage devices, magnetic resonance imaging and fusion reactors. Now the industry of magnetic materials has almost surpassed the semiconductor industry and this speaks volumes about its importance. Extensive research is being carried out by scientists and engineers to remove obsolescence and invent new devices. Though magnetism can be categorized based on the response of an applied magnetic field in to diamagnetic, paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic; it is ferrimagnetic, ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials which have potential applications. The present thesis focusses on these materials, their composite structures and different ways and means to modify their properties for useful applications. In the past, metals like Fe, Ni and Co were sought after for various applications though iron was in the forefront because of its cost effectiveness and abundance. Later, alloys based on Fe and Ni were increasingly employed. They were used in magnetic heads and in inductors. Ferrites entered the arena and subsequently most of the newer applications were based on ferrites, a ferrimagnetic material, whose composition can be tuned to tailor the magnetic properties. In the late 1950s a new class of magnetic material emerged on the magnetic horizon and they were fondly known as metallic glasses. They are well known for their soft magnetic properties. They were synthesized in the form of melt spun ribbons and are amorphous in nature and they are projected to replace the crystalline counterparts.

Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation and Thermal Annealing Induced Modification of Structural, Topographical and Magnetic Properties in Monolayer and Bilayer Films Based on FeNiMoB and Zinc Ferrite

Magnetism and magnetic materials have been playing a lead role in the day to day life of human beings. The human kind owes its gratitude to the ‘lodestone’ meaning ‘leading stone’ which lead to the discovery of nations and the onset of modern civilizations. If it was William Gilbert, who first stated that ‘earth was a giant magnet’, then it was the turn of Faraday who correlated electricity and magnetism. Magnetic materials find innumerable applications in the form of inductors, read and write heads, motors, storage devices, magnetic resonance imaging and fusion reactors. Now the industry of magnetic materials has almost surpassed the semiconductor industry and this speaks volumes about its importance. Extensive research is being carried out by scientists and engineers to remove obsolescence and invent new devices. Though magnetism can be categorized based on the response of an applied magnetic field in to diamagnetic, paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic and antiferromagnetic; it is ferrimagnetic, ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials which have potential applications. The present thesis focusses on these materials, their composite structures and different ways and means to modify their properties for useful applications.

Magnetic and topographical modifications of amorphous Co–Fe thin films induced by high energy Ag7+ ion irradiation

We have investigated the effects of swift heavy ion irradiation on thermally evaporated 44 nm thick, amorphous Co77Fe23 thin films on silicon substrates using 100 MeV Ag7+ ions fluences of 1 1011 ions/ cm2, 1 1012 ions/cm2, 1 1013 ions/cm2, and 3 1013 ions/cm2. The structural modifications upon swift heavy irradiation were investigated using glancing angle X-ray diffraction. The surface morphological evolution of thin film with irradiation was studied using Atomic Force Microscopy. Power spectral density analysis was used to correlate the roughness variation with structural modifications investigated using X-ray diffraction. Magnetic measurements were carried out using vibrating sample magnetometry and the observed variation in coercivity of the irradiated films is explained on the basis of stress relaxation. Magnetic force microscopy images are subjected to analysis using the scanning probe image processor software. These results are in agreement with the results obtained using vibrating sample magnetometry. The magnetic and structural properties are correlated