High power impulse magnetron sputtering growth processes for copper nitride thin film and its highly enhanced UV - visible photodetection properties

Abstract

Copper Nitride (Cu3N) thin films exhibit promising optoelectronic properties and are favourable for further applications in the field of photodetection, lithium-ion batteries etc. In this work, Cu3N thin film deposited by reactive High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) and used for photodetection application for the first time. The microstructure of Cu3N nanocrystal shows the uniform crystalline morphology and less defects due to high target species ionization rate. The phase structure analysis results confirmed the presence of nitrogen within Cu3N thin film that is composed of Cu3N crystallites with anti-ReO3 structure. Remarkably, optical properties reveal significant absorbance and enhancement in ultraviolet (UV) and visible (Viz) range, which strongly affect the photodetection properties of fabricated ITO/Cu3N/ITO device. Excellent photosensitivity of 3792% was attained with a fixed light intensity. Furthermore, the photosensitivity was increased to 7443% with increased light intensity. It was perceived that the enhanced surface properties and perfect formation of ITO/Cu3N/ITO resulted in beneficial pn junction thus exhibits high performance and ultrafast electron-hole recombination. Also, the HiPIMS technique offers high-quality films with a dense and smooth surface that helped in enhancing photodetection. These outstanding results emanate Cu3N films could be potential candidate for future optoelectronic devices fabrication that can be applied in smart thin-film gadgets.