Sputtering Power Induced Physical Property Variation of Nickel Oxide Films by Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

NiO thin films were deposited on Si and Corning 1737 glass substrates using radio frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering system. The physical properties of NiO films under different sputtering power were thoroughly studied. The XRD results indicated that as-prepared NiO films with the sputtering power above 100 W developed only (200) preferred orientation. The AFM results showed that the NiO films were composed of different-size NiO nano-grains and the grain size increased with increasing the sputtering power. The samples marked A-E under the sputtering power of 80, 100, 120, 140 and 160 W have optical band gap values of 3.70, 3.65, 3.50, 3.45 and 3.44 eV, respectively. Comparatively, the controllable electrical properties of the films could be achieved by the variation of crystal quality arises from the sputtering power.

采用射频（radio frequency, rf）磁控溅射系统，在硅（Si）衬底与康宁1737玻璃衬底上沉积了氧化镍（NiO）薄膜。本研究系统探究了不同溅射功率下氧化镍薄膜的物理性能。X射线衍射（X-ray Diffraction, XRD）结果显示，当溅射功率高于100 W时，所制备的氧化镍薄膜仅呈现（200）晶面择优取向。原子力显微镜（Atomic Force Microscopy, AFM）表征结果表明，该氧化镍薄膜由尺寸不一的氧化镍纳米晶粒构成，且晶粒尺寸随溅射功率升高而增大。编号为A至E的样品，对应溅射功率分别为80、100、120、140和160 W，其光学带隙值依次为3.70、3.65、3.50、3.45和3.44 eV。相较而言，通过调控溅射功率以改变晶体质量，可实现氧化镍薄膜电学性能的可控调节。