Investigation of structural, morphological and optical properties of nickel zinc oxide films prepared by sol-gel method

Abstract

NiZnO films have been prepared on glass substrates by sol-gel spin coating method. Nickel (II) nitrate hexahyrate and zinc acetate dihydrate were used as precursors. Surface morphology and crystalline structure of the films were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray diffractometer, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that the films are polycrystalline nature. It was observed that crystal structure changed from wurtzite (ZnO) to cubic (NiO) structure. The lattice constants crystallite size and preferred orientation were calculated from XRD data. The surface morphology of the films changed with Ni concentration. The average transmittance of the ZnO film decreased from 84% to 58% in the visible region. The absorption edge varied from 3.26 to 3.89 eV with increasing Ni concentration