Characterization and properties of NiO films produced by rf magnetron sputtering with oxygen ion source assistance

• P-type NiO films were achieved by rf sputtering with oxygen ion beam assistance.
• Resistivity drops and concentration rises as discharge current of ion gun increases.
• Grain size, mobility and transmittance all drop with increasing discharge current.

The non-stoichiometric NiO films are deposited on glass substrates at ambient temperature through radio frequency (rf) sputtering of NiO target with oxygen ion source by ion gun at varying ion beam current. An ultra high electrical resistivity is achieved that cannot be detected by four-point probe measurement when the NiO film is deposited without oxygen ion beam assistance. However, it drops significantly to 0.43 Ω-cm when an oxygen ion source is introduced from an ion gun set at a discharge current of 0.22 A. The electrical resistivity of the NiO films decreases continuously to 0.11 Ω-cm as the current is further increased to 0.42 A. The Hall measurements for all NiO films deposited with oxygen ion source assistance show p-type conduction. It is found that the crystallinity of the NiO films degrades when an oxygen ion beam is added during deposition. On the other hand, the transmittance of NiO films deposited without ion source assistance is around 69%. It decreases significantly to 35% when the discharge current of the oxygen ion gun is set at 0.22 A. Upon further increasing the current to 0.28 A, 0.33 A, and 0.42 A, the transmittance of the films drops further to 33%, 28%, and 22%, respectively.