Thin Film Deposition of Semiconducting Ni-Co Oxide Spinel with Adequate Electrical and Optical Properties for Energy Application

Nickel-cobalt oxide with spinel structure was successfully fabricated using a wet chemical route followed by calcinations at 300 A degrees C. In nickel-cobalt spinel oxide, Ni2+ ions occupy the octahedral sites and Co3+ ions are distributed over both octahedral and tetrahedral sites. Very interestingly, nickel-cobalt spinel oxide does not only show a p-type semi-conducting behavior material but also exhibits desired transparency in infrared wavelengths. Electrical and optical properties of the deposited films were investigated as a function of different processing conditions. The sputtering target is fabricated by homogeneously mixing oxide powders and followed by sintering at 1,500 A degrees C. The nickel-cobalt oxide film showed a resistivity as low as 10(-2) Omega-cm by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering in a pure oxygen atmosphere. The sputter-deposited nickel-cobalt oxide films also showed more than 70% transmittance in the infrared range.