Study of DC Sputtered Undoped NiO Thin Films

AbstractThin films of nickel oxide were fabricated on glass substrate using the DC sputtering method at ambient temperature under 4 bar base pressure and 100-W power for a period of 15 min in the Argon atmosphere with subsequent post-annealing for 2 h at 500 °C. Using ultrahigh-resolution electron scanning microscopy (SEM), the surface morphology of these films was investigated. For the study of its electrical properties, the resistance of grown films was measured using the conventional four-probe method at 300 K with 1 T applied magnetic field and at zero magnetic fields. The optical characterization of NiO film was performed with UV–Vis, and the bandgap comes out to be 3.6 eV. Nickel oxide thin films can be used in electrochromic display applications, functional layer material for chemical sensors, and as a hole transport layer and window layer in inverted perovskite solar cells.KeywordsDC sputteringSEMThin film