Abstract
The objective of the present work is the study the Ni concentration effect on the optical, structural and electrical properties of ZnO:Ni thin films deposited by pneumatic spray pyrolysis method. Un-doped and Ni-doped ZnO thin films were prepared from zinc acetate dihydrate and nickel chloride hexahydrate dissolved in distilled water onto glass substrates by pneumatic spray pyrolysis method. Solution concentration, substrate temperature and nozzle-substrate distance were kept constant during all deposition processes. Effect of nickel content on the optical, structural and electrical properties of as-prepared films obtained was investigated by UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction and four-point probe technique. The results indicate that the deposited films are well adherent to the substrates, present surface roughness and have a preferential growth in the (002) direction. The observed transmittance in the visible region was situated between 60% and 70%. For Ni-doped ZnO, there are two separate phases. The Urbach energy, grain size, and electrical conductivity increase with Ni content. The same behavior for both the optical energy gap and the ZnO:Ni lattice parameters.