Electrical transport study of structural phase transitions in C60 films and the effect of swift heavy ion irradiation

Three phase transitions (face centered to simple cubic, surface rearrangement from (2×2) to (1×1) and glass transition) in fullerene thin films and the effect of 150 MeV Ti ion irradiation on these transitions have been studied, using temperature dependence of electrical resistivity measurements. The structural properties of the C60 thin films are studied by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and UV–vis spectroscopy. It is observed that defect creation by ion irradiation in the films lead to quenching and broadening of structural phase transitions but the transition temperatures did not show significant shifting under ion irradiation.