ABSTRACT
The present work is focused on the fabrication of VO2(B) thin films by magnetron sputtering followed by proton irradiation using 5 MeV tandem accelerator. For the study of phase transitions, the proton ion beam applied was to the VO2(B) thin films at the rate of 1 × 1015 ions/cm2, 2 × 1015 ions/cm2, 7.5 × 1015 ions/cm2, 5 × 1016 ions/cm2 respectively. The VO2(B) thin-film shows prominent phase variation from VO2(B) to VO2(A) along with the amorphization phenomenon with the increasing doses of proton ions. The diffused reflectance spectroscopy shows increasing trends in reflectance from 20 to 39%. Energy bandgap was determined using a Tauc plot showing efficient decreasing trends w.r.t ion beam doses. Raman spectroscopy shows vibrations in the range from 144 to 883 cm−1 with different bands, confirming the phase transition towards VO2(A) by proton ion beam irradiation. The results are useful and promising for the smart use of various phases of VO2(B) thin film.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank all the staff members of the Accelerator Laboratory of Experimental Physics Laboratory at the National Center for Physics, Islamabad for their valued support. The authors are thankful to Dr. Syed Salman Hussain, Umair Ibrahim, Muhammad Afan of the Department of Physics, IIUI.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).