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Title: Non-equilibrium deposition of phase pure Cu{sub 2}O thin films at reduced growth temperature

Journal Article · · APL Materials
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4865457· OSTI ID:22269558
 [1]; ; ; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado 80401 (United States)
  2. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401 (United States)

Cuprous oxide (Cu{sub 2}O) is actively studied as a prototypical material for energy conversion and electronic applications. Here we reduce the growth temperature of phase pure Cu{sub 2}O thin films to 300 °C by intentionally controlling solely the kinetic parameter (total chamber pressure, P{sub tot}) at fixed thermodynamic condition (0.25 mTorr pO{sub 2}). A strong non-monotonic effect of P{sub tot} on Cu-O phase formation is found using high-throughput combinatorial-pulsed laser deposition. This discovery creates new opportunities for the growth of Cu{sub 2}O devices with low thermal budget and illustrates the importance of kinetic effects for the synthesis of metastable materials with useful properties.

OSTI ID:
22269558
Journal Information:
APL Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 2; Other Information: (c) 2014 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2166-532X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English