Structural damage studies in conducting indium-tin oxide (ITO) thin films induced by Au8+ swift heavy ions (SHI) irradiation

Spray pyrolysis deposited indium-tin oxide (ITO) thin films were fabricated and irradiated using Au8+ swift heavy ions (SHI) (100 MeV energy), at different fluency doses ranging between 1×1011 ions/cm2 and 1×1013 ions/cm2. After irradiation, significant changes have been observed in surface morphology and crystallographic structure pertaining to increase in grain size, change in surface roughness, crystallographic disorders of large crystallites, and noticed a net decrease in optical transmittance and electrical resistivity of these films.