Effect of silver thickness on structural, optical and morphological properties of nanocrystalline Ag/NiO thin films

S Jalili,F Hajakbari,A Hojabri

doi:10.1007/s40094-018-0275-2

S Jalili, F Hajakbari + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40094-018-0275-2

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Abstract

Silver (Ag) nanolayers were deposited on nickel oxide (NiO) thin films by DC magnetron sputtering. The thickness of Ag layers was in range of 20–80 nm by variation of deposition time between 10 and 40 s. X-ray diffraction results showed that the crystalline properties of the Ag/NiO films improved by increasing the Ag film thickness. Also, atomic force microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy images demonstrated that the surface morphology of the films was highly affected by film thickness. The film thickness and the size of particles change by elevating the Ag deposition times. The composition of films was determined by Rutherford back scattering spectroscopy. The transmission of light was gradually reduced by augmentation of Ag films thickness. Furthermore; the optical band gap of the films was also calculated from the transmittance spectra.

Highlights

Nanostructured materials owing to unique physical and chemical characteristics compared with those of the bulk materials have received considerable attentions in recent years [1,2,3]
In this study, Ag nanolayers were deposited on nickel oxide (NiO) thin films and the objective of the present study is investigating the effects of Ag layer thickness on the crystalline structure, surface morphology, and optical properties of Ag/NiO thin films
The XRD data indicates that all the pure NiO and Ag/NiO thin films having polycrystalline nature

Summary

Introduction

Nanostructured materials owing to unique physical and chemical characteristics compared with those of the bulk materials have received considerable attentions in recent years [1,2,3]. Several techniques have been used to prepare NiO thin films, including pulsed laser deposition [5], plasma oxidation [7], DC and RF magnetron sputtering [8,9,10,11,12], sol–gel [13, 14] and so on. In addition to these preparation methods, NiO films can be prepared

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