Effect of silver thickness on structural, optical and morphological properties of nanocrystalline Ag/NiO thin films

Abstract

Silver (Ag) nanolayers were deposited on nickel oxide (NiO) thin films by DC magnetron sputtering. The thickness of Ag layers was in range of 20-80 nm by variation of deposition time between 10 and 40 s. X-ray diffraction results showed that the crystalline properties of the Ag/NiO films improved by increasing the Ag film thickness. Also, atomic force microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy images demonstrated that the surface morphology of the films was highly affected by film thickness. The film thickness and the size of particles change by elevating the Ag deposition times. The composition of films was determined by Rutherford back scattering spectroscopy. The transmission of light was gradually reduced by augmentation of Ag films thickness. Furthermore; the optical band gap of the films was also calculated from the transmittance spectra.

Effect of plasma oxidation parameters on physical properties of nanocrystalline nickel oxide thin films grown by two-step method: DC sputtering and plasma oxidation

“…In these samples, the microstrain and dislocation density increased with increasing the plasma treatment time while the crystallite size decreased. On the other hand, the average crystallite size of the films calculated from XRD data is found in the range of 29-41 nm, which confirms the presence of nanocrystals in the NiO films prepared in this study [7,24,28]. Based on these results, plasma oxidation can be suitable technique for producing the nanocrystalline NiO films.…”

“…where T is the optical transmittance, and d is the thickness of film. The optical band gap energy (E g ) of the films can be calculated from the dependence of absorption coefficient (α) on the incident photon energy (hν) [28].…”

“…The film morphology was examined by atomic force microscopy (AFM, Park Scientific Instrument, Auto probe cp USA) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, Hitachi S-4160) which was equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) system. The composition of films was evaluated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) using a 2 MeV proton beam of a 3 MV single ended Van de Graff machine [7,28]. The surface chemistry and composition of some NiO films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with Al Kα X-ray source (hν = 1486.6 eV).…”

“…In this technique, only the substrate holder and the workpiece are heated, which leads to significantly reduce the treatment times and energy cost and plays a large role in the success of low-temperature processes. Furthermore, the structure and morphology of thin films depend on many factors such as deposition techniques and parameters, composition of films, post-deposition processing and heat treatment [25][26][27][28][29][30]. Owing to advantages of plasma oxidation, an attempt was made on the fabrication of NiO films at different plasma oxidation conditions in this study.…”

Sticky silver nanoparticles and surface coatings of different textile fabrics stabilised by Muntingia calabura leaf extract

“…The density of cotton fabric increases by 10.4% from 135 to 149 g/m 2 after the deposition of AgNPs as a result of forming a hierarchical structure [49]. The density of polyester fabric increases by 12.3% from 155 to 174 g/m 2 there is due to the uniform distribution of AgNPs on the surface of fibre can easily increase the thickness of film layer with increasing of the AgNPs deposition on the polyester fabric [15]. The density of nylon fabric only increases by 5.9% from 102 to 108 g/m 2 due to the layer of the AgNPs thin film deposites on the surface of nylon fabric; very small crystalline AgNPs may distribute over half of the nylon fibre surface [7].…”