Investigations of electrical and optical properties of low energy ion irradiated α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} (hematite) thin films

• Published in: AIP conference proceedings 2016-05, Vol.1731 (1)
• Main Authors: Sulania, Indra, Kanjilal, D., Kaswan, Jyoti, Attatappa, Vinesh, Karn, Ranjeet Kumar, Agarwal, D. C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ANNEALING; CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY; EVAPORATION; FERRITES; GLASS; HALL EFFECT; IRON OXIDES; IRRADIATION; KEV RANGE; NITROGEN; NITROGEN IONS; OPTICAL PROPERTIES; OXYGEN; POLYCRYSTALS; SUBSTRATES; THICKNESS; THIN FILMS
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4948093

Thin films of α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} of thickness ~100 nm were synthesized on Si (100) and glass substrates by thermal evaporation method. The as deposited films were annealed at 400°C in Oxygen environment for 2 hours to obtain the desired phase. The annealed films found to be polycrystalline in nature with an average crystallite size ~7 nm. The direct and indirect band gaps were found to be 2.2 and 1.5 eV respectively for annealed films using. I-V characteristics and Hall-effect measurement of annealed films showed n-type semi conducting behavior. Further, films were irradiated with nitrogen ions of energy 10 keV at an ion fluence of 1×10{sup 18} ions/cm{sup 2}. After irradiation, a decrease in both direct as well as indirect band gap was observed, from 2.2 to 2.1 eV and 1.5 to 1.3 eV respectively. I-V characteristic and Hall-Effect measurement confirmed change in conductivity of the films from n-type to p-type after irradiation, which can have possible applications in semi conducting device fabrications.