Effect of deuterium ion beam irradiation onto the mirror-like pulsed laser deposited thin films of rhodium

• Rh mirror like thin films are fabricated by PLD technique for FM application.
• Rh thin film FMs are irradiated with 10, 20, and 30 keV D ion beam.
• Effect of D ion beam irradiation on Rh FM’s reflectivity is investigated.

The effect of deuterium ion beam irradiation on the reflectivity of mirror-like pulsed laser deposited (PLD) thin film of rhodium is reported. The deposition parameters; target-substrate distance and background helium gas pressure were optimized to obtain the good quality rhodium films, of higher thickness, oriented preferentially in (1 1 1) plane. The rhodium thin films deposited at optimum PLD parameters were exposed to 10, 20, and 30 keV deuterium ion beam. The changes in surface morphology and UV–Visible–FIR reflectivity of mirror-like rhodium thin films, as a function of energy of deuterium ion beam, after exposure are reported.