Microstructure, electrical and magnetic properties of nickel doped tin oxide film prepared by a sol – gel method followed by a nitrogen annealing process

Abstract

Sn1-xNixO2(x = 0.0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.10, 0.20) transparent semiconducting thin films have been prepared on glass substrates using a sol – gel method followed by a nitrogen annealing process. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the film structures were polycrystalline with tetragonal phases similar to SnO2 structure. . The crystallite sizes measured using field emission scanning electron microscope were between 2.79 and 3.98 nm. The resistivity of SnO2 at room temperature was 1.47 (Ω- cm) however, it decreased as Ni dopant increased in the films. A low temperature resistivity analyzing depicted that a few samples has semiconductor behaviour at low temperature. Transparency of all samples measured using UV–Vis spectrophotometer was more than 95% and the calculated band gaps were between 3.98 and 4.00 eV, which was due to the Ni dopant in the samples. Obtained magnetic property of samples confirmed RTFM behaviour. The sample doped with 10% Ni shows the highest saturation magnetization value i.e. 125 emucm−3.