Effect of annealing on the optical properties of the ion beam sputtered NiO Thin Film

Effect of annealing on optical characteristics of Nickel oxide thin films deposited by ion beam sputtering technique from a Ni target in a mixture of oxygen and argon gas on to a glass substrate has been studied. The deposited films were characterized in as deposited state(S1) and after annealing(S2) at temp of 523 K. Crystalline properties of films were investigated using X-ray diffraction technique from which we found that both S1 and S2 shows the polycrystalline nature with preferential growth along (111) plane. The transmittance of the S2 films was decreased. The surface morphology of the film was studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The nonlinear optical properties of the films were obtained using z-scan technique which reveals that the nonlinear absorption coefficient of S2 films is larger than that of S1 samples. Improved nonlinearity suggests the utility of the grown films for optoelectronic device application.