Ion irradiation effects on the optical properties of tungsten oxide films

The optical changes in amorphous WO₃ film prepared by reactive RF sputtering and irradiated by 200-800 keV oxygen ions were measured to study the relationship between coloration and energy deposition. The color centers were effectively created by ion irradiation with contributions from nuclear collisions and electronic energy loss. The increase in the absorption coefficient was reasonably explained by a first order reaction, whose production rate depended roughly on the total deposited energy. During heat treatment in air atmosphere, transmittance recovery started at 400 K and completed at 550 K. No significant difference was found among films irradiated by different incident energies; therefore indicating that the ion-induced damage structure is not strongly influenced by the type of energy loss.