The Effect of Au Nanoparticles on the Structural and Optical Properties of (NiO:WO3) Thin Films Prepared by PLD Technique

Abstract

      In the present investigation, (NiO:WO₃ ) thin films were deposited at RT onto glass substrates  using PLD technique employing focused Nd:YAG laser beam at 600 mJ with a frequency second radiation at 1064 nm (pulse width 9 ns) repetition frequency (6 Hz), for 400 laser pulses incident on the target surface .The structural, morphological and optical properties of the films doped with  different concentration of  Au content (0.03, 0.05, and 0.07) were examined with X-ray diffractometer(XRD), Atomic Force Microscope(AFM) , UV–Vis spectrophotometer . The results show that the films were amorphous with small peaks appearing when doped with AuNPs . The XRD peaks of the deposited NiO:WO3 were enhanced with increasing the Au content  .  The crystalline size of the deposited thin films was calculated using Debye Scherer formula and found to decrease from 6.6 nm for undoped NiO:WO3 to  3.4 nm for doped (NiO:WO3) with the increase of Au content from x=0 to x=0.07  at preferred orientation of (200). All the samples have a cubic structure. Also, the results showed that Au content of the films affects the surface morphology. From the results of AFM analysis, it was found that the roughness and average diameter change when adding Au to the structure, with the highest value occurring at Au ratio 0.03 equal to 7.58 and 81.02 nm, respectively. UV–Vis spectrophotometer was used to investigate the optical transmission. It was found that when Au content of films increased, the transmittance of films decreased.