Defect-mediated photoluminescence enhancement in ZnO/ITO via MeV Cu++ ion irradiation

Khalil Ur Rehman; Muhammad Zubair; Ali Hassan; M Imtiaz Khan; Ishaq Ahmad; Pervaiz Ahmad; Hazrat Ali; Tariq Ali; Muhammad Haris

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109461

Defect-mediated photoluminescence enhancement in ZnO/ITO via MeV Cu⁺⁺ ion irradiation

Appl Radiat Isot. 2021 Mar:169:109461. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109461. Epub 2020 Dec 27.

Authors

Khalil Ur Rehman¹, Muhammad Zubair², Ali Hassan³, M Imtiaz Khan⁴, Ishaq Ahmad⁵, Pervaiz Ahmad⁶, Hazrat Ali⁷, Tariq Ali⁸, Muhammad Haris⁹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, China; National Center for Physics, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
² Center of Excellence in Solid State Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan; College of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials, Ministry of Education, Beijing, University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China; Department of Physics, Abbottabad University of Science and Technology, Havelian, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Electronic address: zubairphy@emails.bjut.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Guangdong Province & Ministry of Education, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China.
⁴ Department of Physics, Abbottabad University of Science and Technology, Havelian, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Electronic address: muimtiazkhan@gmail.com.
⁵ National Center for Physics, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 13100, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan.
⁷ Department of Physics, Abbottabad University of Science and Technology, Havelian, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
⁸ Department of Physics, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
⁹ Advanced Materials Division and Energy Materials Research Centre, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, Daejeon, 34114, South Korea.

PMID: 33378724
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2020.109461

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires play a pivotal role in the nanoworld due to their broad range of characteristics and applications. In this work, structural and optical properties of ZnO nanowires grown on indium doped tin oxide (ITO) coated glass have been modified by copper (Cu⁺⁺) ions irradiation at constant energy of 0.7 MeV. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) are used to examine changes in the nanowires. XRD results show that the crystallite size first decreases and then increases with high ion dose while peaks' intensity decreases continuously with increasing the dose. The absence of (102) plane after irradiation depicts the defects formation. FESEM clearly shows the damage that occurred in the density of nanowires and also depicts the reduced charging effect with increasing dose. The PL spectra indicate the strong near-band edge peak and green luminescence enhancement has been recorded due to low dose ion irradiation.

Keywords: Defects formation; Green luminescence; Ions irradiation; Radiation damage; ZnO nanowires.