IMPACT OF THERMAL TREATMENT ON THE STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF COPPER OXIDE THIN FILMS DEPOSITED BY ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE SPATIAL ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION | Minh | TNU Journal of Science and Technology

IMPACT OF THERMAL TREATMENT ON THE STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF COPPER OXIDE THIN FILMS DEPOSITED BY ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE SPATIAL ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION

About this article

Received: 24/05/24                Revised: 10/07/24                Published: 11/07/24

Authors

1. Nguyen Ngoc Minh, 1) Phenikaa University, 2) School of Materials Science and Engineering - Hanoi University of Science and Technology
2. Tran Vu Hung Anh, Phenikaa University
3. Ho Quoc Viet, Phenikaa University
4. Nguyen Duy Cuong Email to author, School of Materials Science and Engineering - Hanoi University of Science and Technology
5. Nguyen Viet Huong, Phenikaa University

Abstract


CuOx holds significant potential in various fields including energy conversion and storage, gas sensors, and catalysis. In this work, we present our study on the atomic layer deposited CuO thin films using Cu(II) acetylacetonate and ozone in ambient conditions, as well as the impact of thermal treatment in different conditions on the film properties. As a result, CuO thin films were successfully grown on quartz and SiO2/Si substrate at 275 °C with a growth rate of 0.049 nm/cycle. The thermal annealing in ambient conditions at 600 °C helps to improve the crystallinity of CuO, while the as-deposited monoclinic CuO phase can be converted into the cuprous Cu2O phase via annealing in the N2 atmosphere. Via Hall effect measurement, we demonstrated p-type semiconducting characteristics of the Cu2O thin film with carrier mobility μ = 9.1 ×10-3 [cm2V-1s-1], and carrier density p = 4.46 ×1018 [cm-3]. Additionally, the transmittance of the Cu2O films increased by 10–20% compared to the as-deposited CuO film. These findings suggest that Cu2O is a promising material for the hole transport layer in thin-film solar cells, while CuO can be suitable for the absorber layer in photovoltaic devices.

Keywords


CuO; Cu2O; Atomic layer deposition; p-type semiconductor; Annealing

References


[1] A. Sekkat et al., “Open-air printing of Cu2O thin films with high hole mobility for semitransparent solar harvesters,” Commun Mater, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–10, Jul. 2021, doi: 10.1038/s43246-021-00181-8.

[2] A. Lakshmanan, Z. C. Alex, and S. R. Meher, “Recent advances in cuprous oxide thin film based photovoltaics,” Materials Today Sustainability, vol. 20, p. 100244, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.mtsust.2022.100244.

[3] M.-J. Dai et al., “Transparent Conductive p-Type Cuprous Oxide Films in Vis-NIR Region Prepared by Ion-Beam Assisted DC Reactive Sputtering,” Coatings, vol. 10, no. 5, p. 473, May 2020, doi: 10.3390/coatings10050473.

[4] J.-D. Kwon et al., “Controlled growth and properties of p-type cuprous oxide films by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition at low temperature,” Applied Surface Science, vol. 285, pp. 373–379, Nov. 2013, doi: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.08.063.

[5] H. Siddiqui, M. S. Qureshi, and F. Z. Haque, “Valuation of copper oxide (CuO) nanoflakes for its suitability as an absorbing material in solar cells fabrication,” Optik, vol. 127, no. 8, pp. 3713–3717, Apr. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.ijleo.2015.12.133.

[6] T. Dimopoulos et al., “Photovoltaic properties of thin film heterojunctions with cupric oxide absorber,” Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 011205, Jan. 2013, doi: 10.1063/1.4791779.

[7] B. K. Meyer et al., “Binary copper oxide semiconductors: From materials towards devices,” Physica Status Solidi (b), vol. 249, no. 8, pp. 1487–1509, Aug. 2012, doi: 10.1002/pssb.201248128.

[8] C. Zuo and L. Ding, “Solution-Processed Cu 2 O and CuO as Hole Transport Materials for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells,” Small, vol. 11, no. 41, pp. 5528–5532, Nov. 2015, doi: 10.1002/smll.201501330.

[9] Y. Yang, D. Xu, Q. Wu, and P. Diao, “Cu2O/CuO Bilayered Composite as a High-Efficiency Photocathode for Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution Reaction,” Sci. Rep., vol. 6, no. 1, Art. no. 1, Oct. 2016, doi: 10.1038/srep35158.

[10] M. R. A. Cruz, D. Sanchez-Martinez, and L. M. Torres-Martínez, “CuO thin films deposited by DC sputtering and their photocatalytic performance under simulated sunlight,” Materials Research Bulletin, vol. 122, p. 110678, Feb. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.materresbull.2019.110678.

[11] S. Dolai, R. Dey, S. Das, S. Hussain, R. Bhar, and A. K. Pal, “Cupric oxide (CuO) thin films prepared by reactive d.c. magnetron sputtering technique for photovoltaic application,” Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 724, pp. 456–464, Nov. 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.07.061.

[12] M. F. Al-Kuhaili, “Characterization of copper oxide thin films deposited by the thermal evaporation of cuprous oxide (Cu2O),” Vacuum, vol. 82, no. 6, pp. 623–629, Feb. 2008, doi: 10.1016/j.vacuum. 2007.10.004.

[13] L. Armelao, D. Barreca, M. Bertapelle, G. Bottaro, C. Sada, and E. Tondello, “A sol–gel approach to nanophasic copper oxide thin films,” Thin Solid Films, vol. 442, no. 1–2, pp. 48–52, Oct. 2003, doi: 10.1016/S0040-6090(03)00940-4.

[14] P. M. Jeffries and G. S. Girolami, “Chemical vapor deposition of copper and copper oxide thin films from copper(I) tert-butoxide,” Chem. Mater., vol. 1, pp. 8–10, 1989, doi: 10.1021/cm00001a004.

[15] S. Eisermann et al., “Copper oxide thin films by chemical vapor deposition: Synthesis, characterization and electrical properties,” Physica Status Solidi (a), vol. 209, no. 3, pp. 531–536, Mar. 2012, doi: 10.1002/pssa.201127493.

[16] T. Maruyama, “Copper oxide thin films prepared by chemical vapor deposition from copper dipivaloylmethanate,” Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 56, pp. 85–92, 1998, doi: 10.1016/S0927-0248(98)00128-7.

[17] A. Sekkat et al., “Chemical deposition of Cu2O films with ultra-low resistivity: correlation with the defect landscape,” Nat. Commun., vol. 13, no. 1, Art. no. 1, Sep. 2022, doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32943-4.

[18] T. Iivonen et al., “Low-temperature atomic layer deposition of copper(II) oxide thin films,” Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, vol. 34, no. 1, p. 01A109, Jan. 2016, doi: 10.1116/1.4933089.

[19] B. Macco and W. M. M. (Erwin) Kessels, “Atomic layer deposition of conductive and semiconductive oxides,” Applied Physics Reviews, vol. 9, no. 4, p. 041313, Dec. 2022, doi: 10.1063/5.0116732.

[20] D. Muñoz-Rojas et al., “Spatial Atomic Layer Deposition (SALD), an emerging tool for energy materials. Application to new-generation photovoltaic devices and transparent conductive materials,” Comptes Rendus Physique, vol. 18, pp. 391–400, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.crhy.2017.09.004.

[21] M. E. Alnes, E. Monakhov, H. Fjellvåg, and O. Nilsen, “Atomic Layer Deposition of Copper Oxide using Copper(II) Acetylacetonate and Ozone,” Chem. Vap. Deposition, vol. 18, no. 4–6, pp. 173–178, Jun. 2012, doi: 10.1002/cvde.201106959.

[22] V. H. Nguyen et al., “Atmospheric atomic layer deposition of SnO2 thin films with tin (ii) acetylacetonate and water,” Dalton Trans., vol. 51, no. 24, pp. 9278–9290, 2022, doi: 10.1039/D2DT01427K.

[23] T. P. Plateau, “A cheap way to develop absorber layer of solar cell using CuO thin film,” in 2017 4th International Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICAEE), Dhaka: IEEE, Sep. 2017, pp. 415–420, doi: 10.1109/ICAEE.2017.8255392.

[24] R. Shabu, A. Moses Ezhil Raj, C. Sanjeeviraja, and C. Ravidhas, “Assessment of CuO thin films for its suitablity as window absorbing layer in solar cell fabrications,” Materials Research Bulletin, vol. 68, pp. 1–8, Aug. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.materresbull.2015.03.016.

[25] Y. Cao et al., “Towards high efficiency inverted Sb2Se3 thin film solar cells,” Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 200, p. 109945, Sep. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.solmat.2019.109945.

[26] M. A. Rafea and N. Roushdy, “Determination of the optical band gap for amorphous and nanocrystalline copper oxide thin films prepared by SILAR technique,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., vol. 42, no. 1, p. 015413, Jan. 2009, doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/42/1/015413.

[27] W. Maeng, S.-H. Lee, J.-D. Kwon, J. Park, and J.-S. Park, “Atomic layer deposited p-type copper oxide thin films and the associated thin film transistor properties,” Ceramics International, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 5517–5522, Mar. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2015.12.109.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.10446

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
TNU Journal of Science and Technology
Rooms 408, 409 - Administration Building - Thai Nguyen University
Tan Thinh Ward - Thai Nguyen City
Phone: (+84) 208 3840 288 - E-mail: jst@tnu.edu.vn
Based on Open Journal Systems
©2018 All Rights Reserved