Structural and optical properties on nickel oxide thin films prepared by simple nebulizer spray technique

Nickel oxide thin films were deposited from 0.2 M aqueous solution of nickel chloride onto microscopic glass substrates using nebulizer spray pyrolysis method by changing the solution volume. The effect of change in solution volume on structural, surface morphology and optical properties of the films were investigated. The preferential orientation along (1 1 1) plane was observed and other low intensity peaks were observed along (2 0 0) and (2 2 0) planes from XRD with cubic crystal structure. The morphology of the films was found to be with smooth, uniform and pin hole free surface. When the quantity of the sprayed solution was increased, the transmittance decreased, consequently the band-gap wanes from 3.64 to 3.21 eV.