Investigation of plasma process in deposition of cupric oxide film produced by radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Abstract

The plasma process in the deposition of cupric oxide (CuO) film was investigated. The films were synthesized by balanced radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The Effect of substrate temperature, working pressure, and bias voltage on the film properties and their relations to the plasma factors was studied. These parameters affect the kinetic energy and flux of different plasma species, especially ions in the plasma sheath near the substrate. The results showed that all the films were grown with CuO phase composition, however the crystallite size is mainly determined by the substrate temperature than the working pressure or bias voltage. The results also show that the films growth rate and chemical composition are more influenced by the working pressure, so that increasing the working pressure increased the growth rate as well as the oxygen concentration in the film composition. Furthermore it was shown that with increasing working pressure and substrate temperature, the concentration and mobility of the carriers increase. Finally, both optical band gap energy and resistivity of the films decreases by increasing substrate temperature and working pressure. But changing the bias voltage did not change these characteristics.