Study of Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation Induced Nanophases of TiO₂

Abstract

Ion beam irradiation is a unique non-equilibrium technique for phase formation and material modification. Localized rise in temperature and ultra fast (~1012 s) dissipations of impinging energy make it an attractive tool for nanostructure synthesize. Dense electronic excitation induced spatial and temporal confinement of high energy in a narrow dimension leads the system to a highly non-equilibrium state and the system then relaxes dynamically inducing nucleation of nanocrystals along the latent track. In the present investigation, amorphous thin films of TiO2 are irradiated by 100 MeV Ag ion beam. These irradiated thin films are characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Glancing Angle X-ray Diffraction (GAXRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy. AFM and TEM studies indicate formation of circular nanoparticles of size 10±2 nm in a film irradiated at a fluence of 1×1012 ions.cm-2. Nanophase formation is also inferred from the blueshift observed in UV-VIS absorption band edge.