Preparation of nanostructure Ni doped CdO thin films by sol gel spin coating method

The nanostructure Ni-doped CdO films have been prepared by sol gel spin coating method. Atomic force microscopy results indicate that the CdO films are formed from the nanoparticles and the grain size is changed with nickel content. X-ray diffraction patterns of the films indicate that the undoped and Ni-doped CdO films have polycrystalline structure with a cubic sodium chloride structure, showing two main characteristic peaks assigned to the (111) and (200) planes. The optical band gap values of undoped and Ni-doped CdO films were determined by optical absorption method. The E_g values of the CdO films were found to be in the range of 2.26–2.60 eV. The E_g values of the CdO films increase with the content of Ni dopant (up to 6% Ni). It is evaluated that the optical band gap and grain size of the CdO film can be controlled by doping with nickel atoms.