Structural and electrical properties of Mn1.56Co0.96Ni0.48O4 NTC thermistor films

High quality Mn1.56Co0.96Ni0.48O4 (MCN) films have been prepared by chemical solution deposition method. The microstructure and electrical properties of the films are investigated with different layers. Both the crystalline quality and the grain size improve when the film layers increase. The theoretical lattice constant acal is slightly smaller compared with the XRD experiment results a(film). The temperature dependence of resistivity can be described by a variable range hopping model for a parabolic density of states. With the increase of film layers, the sensitivity and stability of the MCN films increase. The advantage of good negative temperature coefficient thermistor characteristic makes the MCN films very preponderant for thermal sensors. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.