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Preparation of pure NiO thin film by radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique and investigation on its properties

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Abstract

The use of nickel oxide as a complementary electrode in electrochromic devices is found to be widespread because of its high coloration efficiency and low materials cost. In the present work, we investigate the properties exhibited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtered nickel oxide (NiO) thin films. The optical, vibrational and morphological characteristics of prepared nickel oxide thin films are tuned with different RF powers (100 W, 150 W and 200 W). The deposited nickel oxide films’ photoluminescence spectra reveal broad band-edges, Ultra-violet emission at 365 nm accompanied by defect-related, at 420 nm (DLE1) and 485 nm (DLE2) which occurred due to deep-level-emission (DLE). The Raman peaks centred at 560 cm−1 are related to 1-phonon longitudinal optic (LO) mode. The peak observed at 1100 cm−1 corresponds to the 2-phonon LO mode of nickel oxide, which is due to the defects of nickel vacancy or an increase in Ni3+ ions. Field emission scanning electron microscopy characterization reveals the prepared films are uniform and pinhole free nature, resulting in a high quality film. The EDX spectrum confirms the purity of the nickel thin film obtained.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Compliance with Ethical Standards.

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Acknowledgements

K.S. Usha is grateful to the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, India for funding via Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE). A grateful acknowledgement is given by an author, R.S to the Department of Education, Government of India for the financial support under RUSA—Phase 2.0 Scheme (Ref. No.: F. 24-51/2014-U, Policy (TNMulti-Gen), dt. 09.10.2018).

Funding

The research leading to these results have received funding from “Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE)” funded by Department of Science and Technology, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Tamilnadu, 638401, India

    K. S. Usha

  2. Department of Physics, Directorate of Distance Education, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, 630003, India

    R. Sivakumar

  3. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Alagappa Chettiar Government College of Engineering and Technology, Karaikudi, 630003, India

    C. Sanjeeviraja

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  1. K. S. Usha
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  3. C. Sanjeeviraja
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by KSU. The first draft of the manuscript was written by KSU, RS and CS edited the entire draft. RS supervized the whole work and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to K. S. Usha.

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The authors declare that there are no competing financial interest and also they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that influence the work reported in this work.

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Usha, K.S., Sivakumar, R. & Sanjeeviraja, C. Preparation of pure NiO thin film by radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique and investigation on its properties. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 16136–16143 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08504-2

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