TY - JOUR
T1 - Swift heavy ion induced surface and microstructural evolution in metallic glass thin films
AU - Thomas, Hysen
AU - Thomas, Senoy
AU - Ramanujan, Raju V.
AU - Avasthi, D. K.
AU - Al- Omari, I. A.
AU - Al-Harthi, Salim
AU - Anantharaman, M. R.
N1 - Funding Information:
M.R.A. and H.T. acknowledge Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi for providing financial assistance in the form of a project. H.T. acknowledges financial assistance received from UGC-FDP, India & DST FIST project received by Department of Physics, Christian College, Chengannur. Kerala, India. The author’s acknowledge B. Mainz (TU Chemnitz) for TEM measurements. I.A. Al-Omari is grateful to Sultan Qaboos University for the support provided to perform this study under the research Grant, number IG/SCI/PHYS/12/02 . M.R.A. acknowledges the support received through the DST-DAAD exchange programme.
PY - 2012/9/15
Y1 - 2012/9/15
N2 - 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 Au 9+ beam with fluences ranging from 3 × 10 11 to 3 × 10 13 ions/cm 2. 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.
AB - 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 Au 9+ beam with fluences ranging from 3 × 10 11 to 3 × 10 13 ions/cm 2. 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.
KW - AFM
KW - Magnetic Thin Films
KW - PSD
KW - SPIP
KW - Swift Heavy Ion
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nimb.2012.05.039
DO - 10.1016/j.nimb.2012.05.039
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84865679516
SN - 0168-583X
VL - 287
SP - 85
EP - 90
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
ER -