CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS | RESEARCH ARTICLE Effect of electron irradiation on gas sensing properties of Al-Zno

1 Abstract: Al-ZnO thin films are prepared by Silar method and are annealed at 450°C for 1 h. A selected number of samples are irradiated by high-energy electron beam and all are characterized by XRD, SEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Both irradiated and non-irradiated samples are then placed independently inside a gas chamber kept at rotary vacuum. The gas chamber is maintained at a pressure of 0.20 mb and at a temperature of 350°C. Ethanol vapour is admitted in a controlled manner into the chamber and the resistance of the film is measured continuously before, during and after the admittance of the ethanol vapour. The experiment is repeated for different dosages of irradiation and different doping concentrations of Al and the resistance of the film getting reduced fast and considerably at the admit- tance of ethanol has been observed. The response and recovery time of the irradi- ated samples is compared with that of non-irradiated samples of the same doping concentration. It has been noted that both irradiated and non-irradiated samples show a response time of 1 s and recovery time of the irradiated samples is shorter than that of non-irradiated samples.