Structural and electrical properties of pure and Cu doped NiO films deposited at various oxygen partial pressures

Pure and Cu doped NiO thin films were successfully deposited by dc reactive magnetron sputtering technique at various oxygen partial pressures in the range 9 × 10−5 to 6 × 10−4 mbar. It was observed that oxygen partial pressure influence the structural and electrical properties. All the deposited films were polycrystalline and exhibited cubic structure with preferential growth along (220) plane for NiO films and (111) and (220) planes for Cu doped NiO films. All the deposited films exhibited p-type conductivity. The electrical resistivity decreased from 62.24 to 9.94 Ω cm and the mobility and carrier concentration were increased with oxygen partial pressure.