Study of Optical and Structural Properties of (NiO)1-x(CuO)x Nanostructures Thin Films

Abstract In this study, mixed Nickel- Copper oxide (NiO)1-x(CuO)x thin films were deposited on glass substrates using chemical spray pyrolysis technique at substrate temperature of 400 °C and thickness of 200 nm. UV-Visible spectroscopy and X- ray diffraction (XRD) were used to study the optical and structural properties of films. The optical energy gap for the thin films was estimated using Tauc's function. It is observed that the band gap decreases with the increase of the mixing ratio of copper oxide. The constants of optical properties contain absorption coefficient as a function of photon energy. Extinction coefficient for all samples was estimated as a wavelength function and the refractive index increased as (CuO) contents increased. The results of XRD showed that these films were polycrystalline in nature with orientation along (111) plane. The average values of crystallite size was estimated by using Scherrer's method and W-H questions are found to increase as the (CuO) contents increased.