Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5467503 | Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms | 2017 | 10 Pages |
Abstract
A crystalline-to-crystalline phase transformation, including chemical decomposition, has been observed in SnO2 nanopowder irradiated by 2.2 GeV 197Au ions. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the transformation from tetragonal SnO2 (P42/mnm) to tetragonal SnO (P4/nmm), with trace quantities of β-Sn (I41/amd). At a fluence of approximately 2.0 Ã 1012 ions/cm2, diffraction maxima corresponding to SnO became clearly evident and increased in intensity as fluence increased. The proportion of SnO, as determined by Rietveld refinement of XRD data, reached 23.1 ± 0.8% at the maximum fluence investigated of 2.4 Ã 1013 ions/cm2. Raman spectra show high photoluminescence (PL) intensity before and during initial SnO formation, indicating the importance of oxygen vacancies in the transformation process. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis provided evidence of ion tracks, but no tracks were observed using high-resolution TEM (HRTEM). The transformation likely occurs through a multiple-impact mechanism, based on the accumulation of O vacancies, defect ordering, and partially localized Sn reduction.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Materials Science
Surfaces, Coatings and Films
Authors
Alex B. Cusick, Maik Lang, Fuxiang Zhang, Jiaming Zhang, Patrick Kluth, Christina Trautmann, Rodney C. Ewing,