Nanocrystalline Nickel Oxide (NiO) Thin Films Grown on Quartz Substrates: Influence Of Annealing Temperatures

In the present investigation, nanocrystalline NiO thin films were prepared by thermal oxidation annealing of DC magnetron sputtered Ni thin films on quartz substrates. The effect of annealing temperature on the films structural, morphological and optical properties was investigated. The XRD analysis shows that all prepared films were of NiO with cubic structure and (200) orientation. The thickness of NiO films was in range of 40-100 nm. The average crystallite size is found to increase from 16 to 36 nm and the optical band gap energy decreases from 3.62 to 3.38 eV by increasing the annealing temperature from 400 • C to 600 • C. The AFM and SEM results show that the annealing temperature effectively influences the surface morphology of the films