Effect of Zn Doping on Structural and some Optical Studies of Nano NiO Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Technique

Abstract

This research deals with the study of the structural andoptical properties of NiO and Zn doped NiO nano films with different ratios (0.01,0.05,0.1 mol %). NiO nano films in thickness 100nm were deposited on a glass substrate using sol-gel spin coating technique. XRD results indicated that the films are polycrystalline and have cubic structure with a preferred orientation along (111). The average grain sizes of the crystallites estimated from XRD data was found to lie in the range of 19.11 – 25.05 nm. Data of AFM indicate that the surface of films is smooth.The optical transmittance value of nano NiO film reaches to 94% in the VIS and NIR regions, while it is value of films deposited with 0.1mol%Zn reaches to (91)% which is important for its applications as window layers in solar cells. The values of optical energy gap of NiO and Zn doping by 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 mol % were equal to 3.73, and 3.58,3.42, 3.41 eV respectively.