Effect of Annealing on Surface of Nickel (Ni)/Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) Nanostructures Measured by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

摘要

Nickel (Ni)/indium tin oxide (ITO) nanostructures were deposited on silicon (111) substrate by RF magnetron sputtering using a nickel target and metallic alloy target (In-Sn, 90%- 10%). The post-deposition annealing has been done for Ni/ITO films in air and the effect of annealing temperature on the surface morphology of ITO films was studied. It has been found that the annealing temperatures increase the film surface roughness in Ni/ITO structure. At annealing temperature of 600°C, AFM analysis reveals the highest root mean square roughness, peak to valley and thickness value of 2.598 nm, 59.115 nm, and 11.358 nm, respectively. Watershed analysis on AFM images show that the numbers of grain boundaries in Ni/ITO are reduced when annealing temperature is increased to higher temperatures.