Microstructural, optical and electrical properties of various time annealed spin coated MgO thin films

In the present study, we have reported on the effect of annealing time variations for spin coated magnesium oxide (MgO) thin films. The various time annealed MgO thin films structural, surface morphological, compositional, electrical and optical absorption properties were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive analysis by X-rays, I–V studies and UV–vis spectroscopy, respectively. The cubic structure formation with preferential orientation along the (200) plane was confirmed from structural analysis. In addition, the influence of the annealing on the microstructural properties of MgO was plausibly explained. The optical properties of MgO thin films were estimated using the transmission spectrum in the range of 400–800 nm. The optical band gap energy of MgO thin films was found to be in the range between 3.81 and 3.93 eV. The morphological studies depicted that the spherical and ellipsoid shaped grains were distributed evenly over the entire surface of the film. The sizes of the grains are found to be in the range between 200 and 250 nm. The composition analysis was performed by EDX for various temperatures annealed MgO thin films.