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Postdeposition annealing of thin nickel films synthesized using R.F. magnetron sputtering technique is carried in this study. The XRD analysis indicates that annealing of the nickel films leads to the formation of nickel oxide with a preferential growth along (200) plane. The oxidation mechanism is observed with a phase transformation and results in polycrystalline NiO films. The surface morphology of the thin films was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) as a function of annealing temperature. The studies indicate the formation of well-defined grain boundaries due to agglomeration of nanocrystallites. The films annealed in the range 573–773 K are found to be porous. The optical transmission spectra of the films annealed at 773 K exhibit interference effects for photon energies below the fundamental absorption edge. The optical studies indicate the existence of direct interband transition across a bandgap of 3.7 eV in confirmation with earlier band structure calculations.

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