Mössbauer study of implanted garnet films after plasma exposure

Single crystal garnet films of composition (YSmCaLu)
3
(FeGe)
5
O
12
were implanted with 175 keV Ne
⁺
ions with a dose of 2 × 10
¹⁴
Ne
⁺
/cm
²
and then exposed to an argon plasma. Conversion-electron Mössbauer spectroscopy (CEMS) showed that some changes occurred in the implanted layer. In particular, the average hyperfine fields were slightly increased and the hyperfine-fleld distributions were decreased. Also, ferrous ions on tetrahedral (d) sites produced during the implantation were converted back to ferric ions. In addition, the amount of a paramagnetic phase was reduced. The films were also annealed at temperatures up to 600°C and studied by CEMS. Some possible origins of the plasma-induced changes are suggested.