Effect of Br+6 ions on the structural, morphological and luminescent properties of ZnO/Si thin films

ZnO/Si thin films were synthesized by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. The films were irradiated by 80 meV Br+6 ions at various ion fluencies. X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated that hexagonal wurtzite crystal structured thin films were obtained. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicated that the O1s peak consist of two components: O1 (ZnO) and O3 (adsorbed species). The roughness of the films changed from 34 to 24 nm with a variation in the ion fluence. The observation of the various phonon modes in the Raman spectra of the ZnO confirmed that the ZnO on Si films have wurtzite structures according to the selection rules. Defect level emission (DLE) was obtained in the luminescence spectra of the irradiated ZnO/Si sample. The thermal spikes model was used to explain the swift heavy ions (SHI) induced modifications in the structural, morphological and luminescent properties of the ZnO/Si films.