Structural Defect Impact on Changing Optical Response and Raising Unpredicted Ferromagnetic Behaviour in (111) Preferentially Oriented Nanocrystalline NiO Films

NiO thin films deposed on a glass substrate, “NiO/glass”, are successfully prepared using a spray pyrolysis technique (SPT) at 460 °C and characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray, Atomic force microscopy (AFM), spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), Photoluminescence (PL) and diverse electric and magnetic studies. The structural investigation shows that the synthesized films crystallized in a cubic structure with (111) preferential orientation. The NiO layers exhibit a uniform grain of regular sizes with aggregates randomly distributed across their surface. The optical properties of the NiO thin films evidenced a normal optical dispersion as well as good transparency of the NiO films. An unpredicted ferromagnetic aspect was raised due to the high oxygen presence in the synthetized material. A high thermal dependency of the conductivity, as well as a semiconductor behavior of the grown NiO material, is also demonstrated

Structural Defect Impact on Changing Optical Response and Raising Unpredicted Ferromagnetic Behaviour in (111) Preferentially Oriented Nanocrystalline NiO Films

NiO thin films deposed on a glass substrate, “NiO/glass”, are successfully prepared using a spray pyrolysis technique (SPT) at 460 °C and characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray, Atomic force microscopy (AFM), spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), Photoluminescence (PL) and diverse electric and magnetic studies. The structural investigation shows that the synthesized films crystallized in a cubic structure with (111) preferential orientation. The NiO layers exhibit a uniform grain of regular sizes with aggregates randomly distributed across their surface. The optical properties of the NiO thin films evidenced a normal optical dispersion as well as good transparency of the NiO films. An unpredicted ferromagnetic aspect was raised due to the high oxygen presence in the synthetized material. A high thermal dependency of the conductivity, as well as a semiconductor behavior of the grown NiO material, is also demonstrated

Physical investigations on perovskite LaMnO3-δ sprayed thin films for spintronic applications

Oxygen deficient LaMnO3 thin films were successfully grown on glass substrate by spray pyrolysis at 460 °C. XRD studies show oxygen vacancies corresponding to the orthorhombic La4Mn4O11 with (040) preferential orientation. Optical properties were investigated through optical band gap and Urbach energy. The dispersion of the refractive index was discussed in terms of both Cauchy and Wemple & Di-domenico models. Raman spectroscopy shows the band positions corresponding to LaMnO3 with a shift related to oxygen deficiency. Electrical properties were quantified using impedance spectroscopy technique within frequency range of 5 Hz-13 MHz at various temperatures. Both the DC conductivity and relaxation frequency were thermally activated with activation energy around 0.9 eV. Also, AC conductivity was investigated through Jonscher law. Finally, magnetic measurements at room temperature using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) technique show ferromagnetic behavior of these ternary sprayed thin films. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd