Electrical, Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Undoped and Na-doped NiO Thin Films

This study was to investigate the electronic structure and optical properties of Na doped into NiO thin film using XPS and REELS. The films were grown by electron beam evaporation with varying the annealing temperature. The relationship between the electrical characteristics with the local structure of NiO thin films was also discussed. The x-ray photoelectron results showed that the Ni 2p spectra for all films consist of Ni 2p3/2 which indicate the presence of Ni-O bond from NiO phase and for the annealed film at temperature above $200^{\circ}C$ shows the coexist Ni oxide and Ni metal phase. The reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy spectra showed that the band gaps of the NiO thin films were slightly decreased with Na-doped into films. The Na-doped NiO showed relatively low resistivity compared to the undoped NiO thin films. In addition, the Na-doped NiO thin films deposited at room temperature showed the best properties, such as a p-type semiconducting with low electrical resistivity of $11.57{\Omega}.cm$ and high optical transmittance of ~80% in the visible light region. These results indicate that the Na doping followed by annealing process plays a crucial in enhancing the electrical and optical properties of NiO thin films. We believe that our results can be a good guide for those growing NiO thin films with the purpose of device applications, which require deposited at room temperature.