Ion beam induced defects in solids studied by optical techniques

Irradiation of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) films with 1 MeV protons with fluences from 1 × 1015 to 250 × 1015 ions/cm−2 induces visible darkening over a broad spectral region that shows three stages of development. This is attributed to the formation of defect clusters by a model of defect growth and also high fluence optical absorption studies. X-ray diffraction studies show evidence of a strained lattice after the proton bombardment and recovery after long period storage. The effects are attributed to the annealing of the defects produced.