Characteristics of Electron Beam Evaporated and Electrodeposited Cu₂O thin films – Comparative study

摘要

Cuprous oxide thin films (Cu2O) are deposited by electron beam evaporation of Cu2O powder andelectrodeposition. As-deposited films are annealed at 150,250C and the effect of annealing onstructural and optical properties of the films are studied. The films are characterised by X-raydiffraction and UV-Vis. Spectroscopy. X-ray analysis revealed that the as-deposited films areamorphous while the annealed films are polycrystalline in nature. The grains had preferred orientationalong (111) direction. Optical transitions involved are found to be direct and allowed and thecalculated band gap value is in the range of 2.6-2.3 eV. A red shift in the optical band gap of the filmsis observed upon annealing. Though the prominent characteristics exhibited by Cu2O thin filmsdeposited by both the methods are similar there is marked difference in their characteristics in theapplication point of view.