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Abstract
The electrical and micro-structural properties of polycrystalline nickel oxides grown by reactive direct current (DC) sputtering were investigated by current-voltage (I-V) measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The oxygen content in the gas mixture was found to be an important parameter affecting the electrical properties of NiO films. At partial pressures above 10%, increasing the oxygen content during sputtering decreased the resistivity. The mechanism of electrical conductivity for the NiO films is discussed from the viewpoint of Nickel or Oxygen vacancies, which generate holes and electrons respectively, vacancy concentration was confirmed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Kook Yoon Kim and the staff the Process Engineering Lab at SAIT for help with the NiO deposition.