Investigation on the nanoscale electric performance of NiO thin films by C-AFM and KPFM: The effect of Cu doping

Abstract

Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) are applied to investigate the nanoscale current imaging of the Cu-dopped NiO thin film on fluorine tin oxide (FTO) substrate. The results show that the Cu doping has a significant impact on the nanoscale current and work function of NiO film. The higher nanoscale current and work function is probably attributed to the presence of Cu+ and nickel vacancy defects. The nanoscale current is consistent to Richardson-Schottky (RS) thermionic emission model.