Preparation and Characterization of NiO Thin Films by DC Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Authors Y. Ashok Kumar Reddy1, A. Mallikarjuna Reddy1, A. Sivasankar Reddy2, P. Sreedhara Reddy1
Affiliations

1 Department of Physics, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati 517 502 India

2 Division of Advanced Materials Engineering, Kongju National University, Budaedong, Cheonan City, South Korea

Е-mail psreddy4@gmail.com
Issue Volume , Year , Number
Dates Received 06 August 2012; revised manuscript received 20 December 2012; published online 29 December 2012
Citation Y. Ashok Kumar Reddy, A. Mallikarjuna Reddy, A. Sivasankar Reddy, P. Sreedhara Reddy, J. Nano- Electron. Phys. 4 No 4, 04002 (2012)
DOI
PACS Number(s) 81.15.Cd, 73.61.Ey
Keywords Sputtering (24) , NiO thin films (4) , Structural properties (9) , Optical properties (22) , Electrical properties (19) , Oxygen partial pressure.
Annotation
Nickel oxide (NiO) thin films were successfully deposited on Corning 7059 glass substrates at different oxygen partial pressures in the range of 1 × 10 – 4 to 9 × 10 – 4 mbar using dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique. Structural properties of NiO films showed polycrystalline nature with cubic structure along (220) orientation. The optical transmittance and band gap values of the films increased with increasing the oxygen partial pressure from 1 × 10 – 4 to 5 × 10 – 4 mbar and decreased on further increasing the oxygen partial pressure. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), fine grains were observed at oxygen partial pressure of 5 × 10 – 4 mbar. The film resistivity decreases from 90.48 to 13.24 Ω·cm with increase in oxygen partial pressure to 5 × 10 – 4 mbar and then increased on further increasing the oxygen partial pressure.

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