Deposition of nickel oxide by direct current reactive sputtering Effect of oxygen partial pressure

International audienceNickel oxide thin films were deposited by Direct Current magnetron reactive sputtering from Ni target onto SnO2:F conductive glass substrates. The process was carried out without intentional heating, in an argon/oxygen gas mixture with various oxygen contents and discharge currents. The polycrystalline NiO thin films were deposited with controlled growth of the structure along [111] and [200] crystallographic directions for chosen conditions. Morphology of as-deposited films was found to depend on the preferentially oriented NiO crystals. Moreover, on the basis of discharge voltage as a function of the O-2 partial pressure for a constant discharge current, we present here the method to estimate the deposition conditions allowing us to achieve the desired preferential growth of transparent p-type semiconductor NiO, by Direct Current magnetron reactive sputtering