Preparation and characterization of Nickel Oxide thin films by direct current reactive magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures

Abstract

The influence of substrate temperature on the properties NiO films, prepared by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique, is studied by various characterization methods. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the crystal structure is highly influenced by the substrate temperature. The optical results indicated that the optical transmittance and band gap of the films increased with the increase of substrate temperature up to 523 K. The optical band gap of NiO films decreases from 3.82 to 3.70 eV with the increase of substrate temperature from 523 to 723 K. The electrical resistivity decreased with the increase of substrate temperature from 303 to 723 K, whereas carrier concentration and Hall mobility increased with increasing the substrate temperature.