Structural, surface morphology and optical properties of NiSnO3 thin films prepared using spray technique

• A new method was developed for preparing NiSnO3 thin film.
• The NSO are characterized by UV–Vis spectra, spectroscopic ellipsometry, PL, XRD, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy and AFM.
• The AFM image shows good homogeneity and crystallite of film.
• The optical band gap of NiSnO3 was estimated to 3.75 eV.

In this paper, the authors have developed a method of preparing NiSnO3 thin films precursors of NiO–SnO2 complex oxide thin films with interests in photovoltaic and sensor applications. The films annealed at 450 °C were deposited on glass substrates using a chemical spray technique and investigated their physicals properties. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows a polycrystalline nature of these films with a crystallite size of close to 50 nm. In addition, the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence and ellipsometry illustrate the appearance of perovskite NiSnO3 while atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals a relatively flat surface morphology.