Structural I-V Characterization of Spray Pyrolysis Deposited Al³⁺, Gd³⁺ Co-doped Nickel Ferrite Thin Film

In this paper, we report the preparation of nanocrystalline thin films of Nickel aluminate and Gadolinium spinel ferrite, having the chemical formula NiFe2-xAlxGdxO4, where Al3+ and Gd3+ vary from 0.00 to 0.02 and 0.04, respectively, with a rise of 0.02, using the well-known spray pyrolysis deposition method. The thin films were grown and deposited on ultrasonically clean glass substrates. The X-ray diffraction pattern shows the orientation of various diffraction peaks at (220), (311), (222), (400), (422), (511), and (540). The occurrence of this diffraction peak suggests the formation of a single-phase compound, as there are no extra diffraction peaks in the XRD pattern other than the cubic spinel phase. The crystallite size, deduced from the Debye-Scherrer equation, varies in the range of 17 nm to 15 nm. The Lattice parameter was found to decrease with the doping of Al3+ and Gd3+ ions. FTIR spectra show the absorption bands close to the 400 cm-1 and 600 cm-1 wave numbers, which are attributed to stretching vibrations of the metal oxygen bond. The ohmic nature of the prepared thin film was confirmed through I-V characteristics.