Electrical properties of undoped and Li-doped NiO thin films deposited by RF sputtering without intentional heating

Abstract

The fundamental transmittance and electrical properties of undoped and Li-doped NiO thin films deposited by conventional RF sputtering without intentional heating were evaluated. Both the transmittance and resistivity of undoped and Li-doped NiO decreased with increasing O2 fraction in the sputtering gas, f(O2) = O2/(Ar + O2). The result is attributed to the increase in the concentration of acceptors of Ni vacancies (VNi) under oxygen-rich growth conditions. In addition to VNi, Li atom on the Ni site (LiNi) likely acts as a shallow accepter, which can explain the experimental finding that the carrier concentration of Li-doped NiO was approximately three orders of magnitude higher than that of the undoped case deposited under the same f(O2). The mobility of NiO was remarkably low (around 0.1–1.0 cm2 V−1 s−1) and almost independent of f(O2) or the amount of doping, reflecting the large hole effective mass.