Abstract
Nanostructured materials with optical transmittance with sufficient electrical conductivity are feasible for the transparent electrical devices and optoelectronic applications. Copper (Cu) possesses inherent superior electrical conductivity. Cu thin films on glass substrates provide the basic design understanding of the transparent electrodes for humidity sensors and solar cells applications. To understand the fundamental fabrication and electrical properties, a single-step facile fabrication approach was applied for Cu nanofilms through the DC sputtering method. Correlation of thickness of Cu nanofilms with optical and electrical properties was established. Parameters such as current, voltage, vacuum pressure, and time of coating were varied to develop different thickness of metal coating. Under optimized conditions of 10−1 torr vacuum, 1.45 KV voltage, and 4–6 min coating time, a conductive path is successfully established. A 1 min coated sample demonstrated resistance of 4000 ohm and conductance of a 6 min coated sample was raised to 56 m-mho. A higher surge of voltage assisted the production of relatively thick and uniform coatings with the crystallite size of 12 nm. The average coating thickness of 19.8 nm and roughness of 4.5 nm was obtained for a 5 min coated sample through AFM analysis. Further, it was observed that uniform nanostructured coating is essential to establish a mean free path of coated particles.
Highlights
In recent years, nanotechnology, a scientific revolution of the 21st century, has grown fast due to worldwide research and experimentation
In addition to catalysis [12], metal nanoparticles are used in sensing, opto-electronics, and electrical engineering [13,14] because of their absorption sensitivity, medicinal, electrical [15], and catalytic properties based on shape, size, and structure
For their antibacterial properties against V staphylococcus aureus bacteria and Bacillus subtilis and for their applications in medicine and dental materials as well as sunscreen lotions, water treatment, and coatings, nanoparticles made of copper, gold, zinc, silver, magnesium, and titanium are of particular interest [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
Summary
Nanotechnology, a scientific revolution of the 21st century, has grown fast due to worldwide research and experimentation. In addition to catalysis [12], metal nanoparticles are used in sensing, opto-electronics, and electrical engineering [13,14] because of their absorption sensitivity, medicinal, electrical [15], and catalytic properties based on shape, size, and structure For their antibacterial properties against V staphylococcus aureus bacteria and Bacillus subtilis and for their applications in medicine and dental materials as well as sunscreen lotions, water treatment, and coatings, nanoparticles made of copper, gold, zinc, silver, magnesium, and titanium are of particular interest [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. A simple fabrication approach was chosen to prepare thin films of copper “Cu” with varying thicknesses that were deposited on the glass substrate using an Edwards Sputter Coater S150B and systematically studied the effects of vacuum pressure, voltage, and coating time on light transmittance, electrical resistance, and conductance of the prepared films
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