Influence of annealing on the physicochemical properties of metal oxide semiconductorthin films by spray pyrolysis method

Abstract

Recent technological and industrial developments in the field of thin films have been influenced by metal oxide semiconductors. Thin film technology plays a vital role in many opto-electronic device applications which contributes to the rapid economic growth of electronics industry. In this research, the metal oxide semiconductor thin films of Iron (Fe), Cobalt (Co) and Nickel (Ni) have been fabricated by spray pyrolysis method at room temperature. Further, the obtained thin films (Fe2O3, CoO and NiO) were annealed at low temperatures such as 150and#9702;C and 300and#9702;C. The influence of annealing on the physico-chemical, magnetic and electrical properties is studied through various characterisation techniques. The techniques employed for the study are XRD, UV-Visible, SEM, EDX, FTIR, Raman analysis, Photoluminescence, VSM and Hall measurement system. From the results obtained, the stability and phase transformation, influenced by annealing are observed. Further, the decrease/increase in band gap is obtained for the annealed films of Iron triad. The VSM results of the annealed iron oxide are of particular interest, as it exhibit superferromagnetic nature. The results obtained for the pristine and annealed thin films promotes them for various applications such as antireflection coatings, transformer cores, magnetic storage devices and spintronics. Also, the zone of inhibition of the annealed nanoparticles against various bactericides and fungicides is studied by Well diffusion method which finds application in the biomedical field newline