Effect of swift heavy ion irradiation on dilute Fe-doped Sb0.95Se0.05 magnetic semiconductor

A thin film of dilute Fe (0.008)-doped Sb_0.95Se_0.05 alloy was grown on silicon substrate using the thermal evaporation technique. This film was irradiated with swift heavy ions (SHIs) Ag⁺¹⁵ having 200?MeV energy at ion fluences of 1?×?10¹² and 5?×?10¹² ions per cm², respectively. The thickness of the thin film was ～500?nm. We study the effect of irradiation on structural, electrical, surface morphology and magnetic properties of this film using grazing angle XRD (GAXRD), DC resistivity, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM), respectively. GAXRD suggests that no significant change is observed in this system due to SHI irradiation. The average crystallite size increases with fluence, whereas the AFM image shows the rms roughness decreases due to irradiation with respect to the un-irradiated thin film. The MFM image shows that the magnetic interaction in irradiated film decreases due to the irradiation effect. Although the un-irradiated sample shows metal to semiconducting transition, but after irradiation with fluence of 5?×?10¹² ions per cm², the sharpness of the metal to semiconducting phase transition is observed to increase dramatically at ～300?K. This characteristic of the thin film makes it a promising candidate for an electrical switching device after irradiation.