Abstract
CuAlO 2 thin films are prepared by sol-gel dip-coating followed by annealing in nitrogen atmosphere using copper nitrate and aluminum nitrate as metal source materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns show (003), (006) and (009) oriented peaks of CuAlO 2 at annealing temperature of 800 – 1000°C. This result indicates that the CuAlO 2 films prepared in the present work are c -axis oriented. XRD peak intensity increase with annealing temperature and becomes maximum at 850°C. The CuAlO 2 XRD peak decreased at annealing temperature of 900°C with appearance of a peak of CuO, and then increased again with annealing temperature until 1000 °C. The films have bandgap of 3.4 eV at annealing temperature of 850°C in which the transparency becomes the highest. At the annealing temperature of 850°C, scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation reveals that the films are consist of amorphous fraction and microcrystalline CuAlO 2 fraction.
Highlights
Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) materials have been widely used in various kinds of opt-electric devices as a transparent electrode in solar cells, light emitting diodes, and liquid crystal displays
At annealing temperature of 800°C, other peaks of CuAlO2 are observed at 15.8° (003), 36.8° (101) and 48.5° (009)
The formation of CuO at those annealing temperature have been reported in the sol-gel preparation study of CuAlO2 using other starting material [8]
Summary
Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) materials have been widely used in various kinds of opt-electric devices as a transparent electrode in solar cells, light emitting diodes, and liquid crystal displays. High conductive and highly transparent p-type TCO has not been fabricated. Some metal oxide materials, such as NiO or Cu2O have shown p-type conductivity, NiO have high resistivity [3] and Cu2O has narrower bandgap to be a transparent [4]. Co-workers reported a p-type and wide bandgap delafossite structured ternary metal oxide, CuAlO2 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. The CuAlO2 films show optical bandgap of 3.5 eV and conductivity of 1 ǂ-1cm-1 [5]. CuAlO2 thin films have been prepared by sol-gel method using copper acetate monohydrate and aluminum-tri-sec-butoxide as metal source materials [8] or using copper acetate monohydrate and aluminum nitrate nonahydrate [9]. The dependencies of structural properties, optical properties, and morphology on annealing temperature are investigated
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