Fabrication of Highly Resistive NiO Thin Films for Nanoelectronic Applications

Abstract

Thin films of the prototypical charge transfer insulator nickel oxide appear to be a promising material for novel nanoelectronic devices. The fabrication of the material is challenging, however, and mostly a p-type semiconducting phase is reported. Here, the results of a factorial experiment are presented that allow optimization of the properties of thin films deposited using sputtering. A cluster analysis is performed, and four main types of films are found. Among them, the desired insulating phase is identified. From this material, nanoscale devices are fabricated, which demonstrate that the results carry over to relevant length scales. Initial switching results are reported.

Improved Production Rates of Hydrogen Generation and Carbon Dioxide Reduction Using Gallium Nitride with Nickel Oxide Nanofilm Capping Layer as Photoelectrodes for Photoelectrochemical Reaction

“…Furthermore, NiO possesses either a p-type character or significantly higher resistivity than n-GaN, − leading to a larger energy band bending near the electrolyte/n-GaN interface, resulting in a stronger built-in electric field. This enhanced field effectively separates photogenerated carriers, ultimately increasing photocurrent .…”

“…As shown in Figure c, the magnified lattice image reveals a regular lattice arrangement in some areas of the NiO layer, indicating a polycrystalline-like character of the sputtered NiO films on the n-GaN. This result is consistent with its high-resistivity property. − Notably, even when the thickness of NiO films was increased under identical sputtering conditions, their resistivity remained remarkably high. In fact, it surpassed the maximum measurable limit of our instruments.…”