Characterization and Low Temperature Study of Iron Telluride Thin Films Upon Ageing and Oxygen Ion Irradiation

• Published in: Journal of superconductivity and novel magnetism Vol. 27; no. 11; pp. 2639 - 2643
• Main Authors: Janaki, J., Kumary, T. Geetha, Mani, Awadhesh, Amaladass, E. P., Raveendran, N. Radhikesh, Magudapathy, P., Kalavathi, S., Sairam, T. N., Ravindran, T. R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.11.2014
• Subjects: Aging; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; Intermetallics; Ion irradiation; Iron; Irradiation; Magnetic Materials; Magnetism; Original Paper; Phase change; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Strongly Correlated Systems; Superconductivity; Thin films; Ron telluride; Geing effects; Hin films; On irradiation; Superconductivity
• ISSN: 1557-1939; 1557-1947
• DOI: 10.1007/s10948-014-2635-8

The occurrence of superconductivity in iron telluride thin films has been observed upon ageing. The superconducting transition is found to be very robust under an application of magnetic fields up to 10 T. Infrared and Raman spectroscopic characterization of the aged films reveal the formation of Fe 1+δ TeO x upon ageing. As an alternative method of introducing oxygen in FeTe thin film, oxygen ion irradiation has also been carried out It is found that the irradiated film becomes increasingly disordered and ultimately transforms to an amorphous phase upon increasing the irradiation dose. Investigation of electrical resistivity and optical reflectivity of the irradiated FeTe films indicates an interesting possibility of an ion irradiationinduced phase change memory material in analogy to the phase change characteristics of laserirradiated FeTe films.