EFFECT OF SWIFT HEAVY ION IRRADIATION ON THE STRUCTURAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF COPPER FERRITE NANOPARTICLES.

Influence of Ni11+ swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation induced modifications on structural and morphological aspects of CuFe2O4 nanoparticles have been studied. The bulk sample is synthesized using co-precipitation technique. The cubic spinel structure is identified using X-ray diffraction technique and these nanoparticles have an average grain size of about 10 nm. These materials are irradiated at various fluences of 1 × 1011, 1 × 1012, 1 × 1013, 1 × 1014, and 5 × 1014ions/cm2 using Ni11+ ion beam of 150 MeV energy. The XRD pattern of the irradiated material shows the change in crystalline nature. The spinel ferrite (311) peak, which is having maximum intensity in the pristine, decreases at the fluence of 1 × 1011 and 1 × 1012ions/cm2 and then completely vanishes on further irradiation. However, a new X-ray peak arises in the (222) direction. All the other peaks in the pristine sample vanish on irradiation elucidating the creation of amorphization nature. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis shows fine blocks of material for pristine and partial agglomeration on irradiation. Notably, a large number of holes are present at the fluence of 5 × 1014ions/cm2 due to heavy ion irradiation. The phase change from crystalline to amorphous nature on XRD and the creation of holes from SEM is discussed on the basis of electrophonon coupling and it invokes the thermal spike theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]