Structural and Optical Properties of Nickel (Ni)/indium Tin Oxide (ITO) Thin-Films Deposited by RF Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Nickel (Ni)/ indium tin oxide (ITO) thin-films have been deposited on silicon (Si) and glass substrates using radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at 200°C temperature. ITO layer was deposited on top of Ni layer with various deposition parameter. The material and optical properties of the ITO samples with and without Ni seed layer were analyzed. X-ray diffraction studies shows that the films are crystalline with the typical ITO diffraction peaks of (222), (400) and (411). The FESEM and AFM images shows that the grains have uniform shapes and sizes. FESEM results reveal that the grain size along the sample surface decreases when the Ni seed layer is added. Both the samples shows higher transmittance of more than 95% in UV-vis spectrometer.