Effect of plasma oxidation parameters on physical properties of nanocrystalline nickel oxide thin films grown by two‑step method: DC sputtering and plasma oxidation

Nanocrystalline nickel oxide (NiO) thin films were successfully grown on quartz substrates by two-step method. In the first step, nickel films were deposited on quartz substrates by DC magnetron sputtering technique. Then, the plasma oxidation of nickel films was used for preparation of nickel oxide. The effect of DC plasma power and treatment time on the structural, morphological and optical properties of the NiO films were investigated by different analyses. XRD results indicated that the plasma powers effectively influenced the structure of films, and the best crystallinity was obtained for plasma power of 15 w and treatment time of 20 min. The XPS, RBS and EDS analysis confirmed the presence of Ni and O elements. The FESEM and AFM images showed a granular structure with spherical shapes of grains. The optical band gap of the films synthesized under different plasma oxidation conditions was also discussed.