Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation-Induced Modifications in Structural, Optical, Electrical and Magnetic Properties of Mn Doped $SnO_{2-δ}$ Thin Films

Swift heavy ion irradiation is an effective technique to induce changes in the lattice of the materials leading to significant modification of properties. In this paper, we have presented the impact of swift heavy ion beam irradiation on the structural, optical, electrical and magnetic properties of $Sn_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}O_{2-\delta}$ thin films. Measurement of resistivity, mobility, carrier density, transmissivity to visible light, and saturation magnetization as a function of ion fluence ($1\times10^{11}$ to $3\times10^{13}$ $ions/cm^{2}$) promulgates that increasing fluence results in degradation in electrical, optical and magnetic properties of $Sn_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}O_{2-\delta}$. The structural, optical and electrical results have been interpreted by using properties of native or point defects, whereas the magnetic and morphological variations have been explained in terms of conductivity of material. Efforts have been made to summarize the properties of all possible charged and neutral point defects $(V_{Sn}^{4-}$, $Sn_{i}^{4+}$, $V_{O}^{0}$, $O_{i}^{2-}$, $Sn_{O}^{4+}$, $O_{Sn}^{2-}$, $H_{O}^{+})$ and afterwards from the correlation between experimentally-observed and theoretically-calculated results various interesting conclusions have been drawn.