Abstract
Transparent thin films of pure and nickel-doped ZrO2 with doping levels of 0, 1, 3 and 5 molar percentage were deposited through sol–gel dip coating and subsequently annealed at 500°C. Surface morphology and film thickness were examined through field emission scanning electron microscopy, which revealed a smooth surface morphology of the synthesized film, while elemental dot-mapping confirmed uniform distribution of nickel in the film. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed tetragonal crystalline structure of the deposited films. The structure exhibited a change in crystallite size upon varying the doping concentration. UV–Visible spectroscopy was employed for determining the optical band gap and transmittance. All the specimens were found to exhibit transmittance above 80%. Surface defects and oxygen vacancies were analyzed through photoluminescence spectroscopy. The photoluminescence peak intensities were observed to decrease upon increasing the nickel doping beyond 1% molar ratio, which was found to be in accordance with the change in optical band gap determined through UV–Visible spectroscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed a strong absorption peak corresponding to Zr–O vibrational mode, while another peak corresponding to Ni–O vibrational mode was observed for nickel-doped samples, thereby implying replacement of some Zr4+ ions by Ni2+ ions in the lattice.
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