Preparation And Characterization Of NiO Thin Films

NiO is a p-type transparent conducive oxide with typical 3d electron structure. Its wide band-gap energy range from 3.0-4.0eV. It is widely used in many fields, such as electrochromic display, electrodes, gas sensors, and in smart windows.There are several methods to prepare nickel oxide films, which include sputtering, electron beam evaporation, and sol-gel deposition. Among these methods, reactive sputtering has been most widely used. The properties of the films depend on various sputtering parameters, including reactive sputtering gas ratio, sputtering pressure, RF power and substrate temperature.In this thesis, NiO thin films were deposited by reactive RF-magnetron sputtering from different sputtering voltage and O/Ar. The structural, optical and electrical properties of the thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction(XRD), UV-VIS spectrophotometer and four probe resistivity measurement. We also discussed the effect of annealing on optical and electrical properties of the NiO thin films and show the results.