Nickel Oxide Films Deposited by Sol-Gel Method: Effect of Annealing Temperature on Structural,Optical, and Electrical Properties |
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| Authors: | Tatyana Ivanova Antoaneta Harizanova Maria Shipochka Petko Vitanov |
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| Affiliation: | 1.Central Laboratory of Solar Energy and New Energy Sources, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Tzarigradsko Chaussee 72, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria; (A.H.); (P.V.);2.Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G, Bonchev St., bl. 11, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria; |
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| Abstract: | In our study, transparent and conductive films of NiOx were successfully deposited by sol-gel technology. NiOx films were obtained by spin coating on glass and Si substrates. The vibrational, optical, and electrical properties were studied as a function of the annealing temperatures from 200 to 500 °C. X-ray Photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy revealed that NiO was formed at the annealing temperature of 400 °C and showed the presence of Ni+ states. The optical transparency of the films reached 90% in the visible range for 200 °C treated samples, and it was reduced to 76–78% after high-temperature annealing at 500 °C. The optical band gap of NiOx films was decreased with thermal treatments and the values were in the range of 3.92–3.68 eV. NiOx thin films have good p-type electrical conductivity with a specific resistivity of about 4.8 × 10−3 Ω·cm. This makes these layers suitable for use as wideband semiconductors and as a hole transport layer (HTL) in transparent solar cells. |
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| Keywords: | sol-gel technology NiO thin films optical properties electrical properties |
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