Preparation of cuprite (Cu2O), paramelaconite (Cu32+Cu21+O4) and tenorite (CuO) with magnetron sputtering ion plating: characterization by EPMA, XRD, HEED and SEM

A. v. Richthofen, R. Domnick and Rainer Cremer

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Abstract

Cu-O layers were deposited on Si-<100> wafers at 90° C by means of reactive magnetron sputtering ion plating (R-MSIP). A Cu-target was sputtered in rf-mode by an oxygen/argon plasma, and the influence of the oxygen partial pressure on composition, structure, texture and morphology of the Cu-O layers was investigated. The analysis with EPMA, XRD, HEED and SEM yielded the following results: with an appropriate setting of the oxygen partial pressure, the oxygen content of the films could be controlled between 0 and 50 at-%. XRD bulk structure analysis shows changes in the crystal structure of the films with increasing oxygen content from the fcc structure of Cu, followed by the sc structure of Cu2O (cuprite), the tetragonal structure of Cu3 2+Cu2 1+O4 (paramelaconite) to the monoclinic structure of CuO (tenorite). As revealed by HEED, the structure of the near-surface region of the latter two is the same as that of the bulk, whereas in the case of the films with fcc bulk structure, due to oxidation by air, the surface has the sc structure of Cu2O, and in the case of the film with the sc structure, a monoclinic surface structure of CuO is observed. SEM analyses detected a disordered columnar growth of all Cu-O films.
Received: 24 June 1996 / Accepted: 8 December 1996

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