Deposition of nickel oxide by direct current reactive sputtering

Abstract Nickel oxide thin films were deposited by Direct Current magnetron reactive sputtering from Ni target onto SnO2:F conductive glass substrates. The process was carried out without intentional heating, in an argon/oxygen gas mixture with various oxygen contents and discharge currents. The polycrystalline NiO thin films were deposited with controlled growth of the structure along [111] and [200] crystallographic directions for chosen conditions. Morphology of as-deposited films was found to depend on the preferentially oriented NiO crystals. Moreover, on the basis of discharge voltage as a function of the O2 partial pressure for a constant discharge current, we present here the method to estimate the deposition conditions allowing us to achieve the desired preferential growth of transparent p-type semiconductor NiO, by Direct Current magnetron reactive sputtering.