A comparative study of copper thin films deposited using magnetron sputtering and supercritical fluid deposition techniques

Highlights: • Supercritical fluid chemical deposition of nanostructured copper films • Crystallinity, microstructure and surface morphology study • Nanostructured copper thin films with low resistivity values • Resistivity data as function of the crystallite size and the deposit technique - Abstract: A comparison of crystallinity, microstructure, surface morphology and electrical conductivity is proposed for the deposition of copper films, using supercritical fluid chemical deposition (SFCD) and RF magnetron sputtering techniques. Both preparation methods yield nanocrystalline Cu films (2 as reducing agent. Uniform strain values are significantly reduced when SFCD technique is used and crystallinity is highly increased leading to lower resistivity values for a same crystallite size. This study demonstrates the viability of the SFCD technique to produce high quality nanostructured copper thin films with low resistivity values.