Ion Beam Effect on the Structural and Optical Properties of AlN:Er

Erbium (Er)-doped Aluminum Nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited and fabricated on Si (100) and Si (111) substrates in a Nitrogen atmosphere using the plasma magnetron sputtering technique. The deposited and fabricated thin films were thermally annealed at 900 °C in Argon (Ar) atmosphere. The samples were irradiated with protons at a dose of 1 × 1014 ions/cm2 which carried an incident energy of 335 keV, using a tandem pelletron accelerator. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used for the stoichiometric and structural analysis of the films, while Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was performed to track the changes in the optical characteristics of thin films before and after the ions’ irradiation and implantation. The irradiation has affected the optical and structural properties of the films, which could be exploited to use the AlN:Er films for various optoelectronic and solid-state device applications.