Nickel vacancy behavior in the electrical conductance of nonstoichiometric nickel oxide film

Nickel vacancy behavior in electrical conductance is systematically investigated using various analysis methods on nickel oxide films deposited at different oxygen partial pressures. The results of Rutherford backscattering, x-ray diffraction, and Auger electron spectroscopy analyses demonstrate that the sputtered nickel oxide films are nickel-deficient. Through the deconvolution of Ni2p and O1s spectra in the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data, the number of Ni3+ ions is found to increase with the O2 ratio during the deposition. According to the vacancy model, nickel vacancies created from the non-stoichiometry are concluded to produce Ni3+ ions which lead to an increment of the conductivity of the nickel oxide films due to the increase of the hole concentration.