Effect of Grazing Angle Cross-Ion Irradiation on Ag Thin Films

Apart from the spherical shape, control over other shapes is a technical challenge in synthesis approaches of nanostructures. Here, we studied the effect of grazing angle cross-irradiation Ag thin films for the nanostructures evolution from a top-down approach. Ag thin films of different thicknesses were deposited on Si (100) and glass substrates by electron beam evaporation system and subsequently irradiated at grazing angle ions by 80 keV Ar⁺ in two steps (to induce effectively a cross-ion irradiation). Pristine films exhibited dense and uniform distribution of Ag nanoparticles with their characteristic surface plasmon resonance-induced absorption peak around 420 nm. When the film surfaces were treated with cross-grazing angle irradiation of Ar ions with varying effective fluences from 0.5 × 10¹⁷ ions/cm² to 2.0 × 10¹⁷ ions/cm², it was found that fluence values governed the competition of sputtering and sputter re-deposition of Ag. As a result, lower irradiation fluence favoured the formation of cone-like nanostructures, whereas high fluence values demonstrated dominant sputtering. Fluence-dependent modification of surface features was studied through the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and the Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. Theoretical justifications for the underlying mechanisms are presented to justify the experimental results.