Effect of Sprayed Solution Volume on Structural and Optical Properties of Nickel Oxide Thin Films

Authors S. Benhamida1,2, B. Benhaoua1, R. Barir3, A. Rahal1, A. Benhaoua1
Affiliations

1 VTRS Laboratory of Hamma Lakhdar University, P.O. Box 789, 39000 El-Oued, Algeria

2 Faculty of Exact Sciences and Sciences of Nature and Life, University of Biskra, Biskra 07000, Algeria

3 Department of Physics, Kasdi Merbah University, P.O. Box 511, 30000 Ouargla, Algeria

Е-mail benhamidas9@gmail.com
Issue Volume 9, Year 2017, Number 3
Dates Received 13 February 2017; revised manuscript received 29 May 2017; published online 30 June 2017
Citation S. Benhamida, B. Benhaoua, R. Barir, et al., J. Nano- Electron. Phys. 9 No 3, 03004 (2017)
DOI 10.21272/jnep.9(3).03004
PACS Number(s) 73.61. – r, 78.20. – e, 78.66. – w
Keywords Nickel oxide (2) , Thin films (60) , Spray pyrolysis (9) , XRD diffraction, FT-IR technique.
Annotation Undoped Nickel oxide (NiO) thin films were deposited on 500 ˚C heated glass using spray pyrolysis technique. Effect of volume sprayed solution on structural and optical properties of NiO thin films was studied. Volume amount was ranged in 5 – 30 ml and stepped by 5ml. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and UV-visible spectrophotometer were used to investigate elaborated thin films. XRD results show that the deposited films with volume lower than 10 ml is amorphous and with increasing volume up to 10 ml NiO thin films structure become polycrystalline with cubic structure and (111) as preferential orientation. An increase in diffraction intensity of preferred peak and narrowing in full width at half maximum were observed with sprayed volume increasing, which leads to better crystallinity of NiO thin films. Also it was observed that the grain size increased with increasing volume solution and were averaged in 10 – 28 nm. FT-IR analysis of product confirms the NiO bond formation and the results were compared with previous studies. All films exhibit an average optical transparency between 50 % and 80 % in the visible range and their band gap values are ranged in 3.38 – 3.62 eV.

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