Effect of Annealing in Physical Properties of NiO Nanostructure Thin Film

Abstract

Nickel oxide was deposited on highly cleaned glass substrates using spray pneumatic technique. The effect of precursor molarity on structural, optical and electrical properties has been studied. The XRD lines of the deposited NiO were enhanced with increasing precursor molarity due to the improvement of the films crystallinity. It was shown that the average of the crystalline size of the deposited thin films was calculated using Debye–Scherer formula and found 46.62 for as-deposited sample and 119.89 nm for the annealed one. The optical properties have been discussed in this work. The absorbance (A), the transmittance (T) and the reflectance (R) were measured and calculated. Band gap energy is considered one of the most important optical parameter, therefore measured and found ranging ranging 3.64 for as-deposited sample and 2.98 eV for the annealed one. The NiO thin film reduces the light reflection for visible range light. The increase of the electrical conductivity to maximum value of 0.09241 (Ωcm)−1 can be explained by the increase in carrier concentration of the films. A good electrical conductivity of the NiO thin film is obtained due to the electrically low sheet resistance. NiO can be applied in different electronic and optoelectronic applications due to its high band gap, high transparency and good electrical conductivity.