Title: Effects of interfacial energy and annealing on the microstructure of NiTe₂ thin films on glass substrate

Authors: Lee Sung Hyuk; Tae Won Yuk; Kyu Hyoung Lee; Suk Jun Kim

Addresses: Department of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education (KOREATECH), Cheonan 31253, South Korea ' Department of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education (KOREATECH), Cheonan 31253, South Korea ' Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, South Korea ' Department of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education (KOREATECH), Cheonan 31253, South Korea

Abstract: A specific sputtering technique and an ex situ annealing process increased both the grain size of NiTe₂ thin films and the number of grains with basal planes parallel to the substrate. These properties are important when utilising NiTe₂ as transparent electrodes, because larger grains lower the electrical resistivity. In addition, grains arranged in specific directions are helpful for exfoliation in order to reduce their thicknesses. The NiTe₂ films fabricated by the compound sputtering technique exhibited a lower interfacial energy between the film and the glass substrate as compared to those prepared by co-sputtering. The lowered interfacial energy resulted in larger grains in the compound-sputtered films as compared to those in the co-sputtered films. Ex situ annealing enabled a further increase in the grain size from 63.4 nm to 140 nm.

Keywords: transparent electrode; TMDCs; transition metal dichalcogenide; two-dimensional materials; NiTe₂; magnetron sputtering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2018.096351

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2018 Vol.15 No.6/7, pp.611 - 619

Published online: 26 Nov 2018 *

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