Au3+ ion implantation on FTO coated glasses: Effect on structural, electrical, optical and phonon properties

Effects of 11.00 MeV Au3+ ions implanted in FTO coated (thickness ≈300 nm) silicate glasses on structural, electrical optical and phonon behavior have been explored. It has been observed that metal clustering near the surface and sub-surface region below glass-FTO interface changes electrical and optical properties significantly. Ion implantation does not affect the crystalline structure of the coated films; however, the unit cell volume decreases with increase in fluence and the tetragonal distortion (c/a ratio) also decreases systematically in the implanted samples. The sheet resistivity of the films increases from 11 × 10−5 ohm-cm (in pristine) to 7.5 × 10−4 ohm-cm for highest ion beam fluence ≈1015 ions/cm2. The optical absorption decreases with increasing fluence whereas, the optical transmittance as well as reflectance increases with increasing fluence. The Raman spectra are observed at ∼530 cm−1 and ∼1103 cm−1 in pristine sample. The broad band at 530 cm−1 shifts towards higher wave number in the irradiated samples. This may be correlated with increased disorder and strain relaxation in the samples as a result of ion beam irradiation.