Abstract
With a view to study the optical properties of La doped NiO thin films and make them available for futuristic optoelectmnic devices, these films were deposited by spin coating technique assisted by sol-gel. The structural, morphological, linear and non-linear optical properties of the as-prepared films were studied. XRD shows that the films were polycrystalline, and the growth of grains was studied by AFM. The Raman spectra of the pure and La doped films were analyzed over the range 200-1400 cm(-1). The optical study of the doped films shows that they are highly transparent in the visible region. Moreover, the direct and indirect band gaps of the films were evaluated and are found to be in the range of 3.84-3.96 eV for the direct and 3.26-3.4 eV for the indirect bandgap. Higher value of non-linear susceptibilities and refractive index opens a window for wide use of these films in optoelectmnic devices.