Effects of Post-annealing Treatment on the Properties of Reactive Sputtered Cuprous-oxide Thin Films

The p-type cuprous-oxide (Cu2O) thin films were fabricated by using the reactive sputtering method. As-deposited p-type Cu2O thin films were post-annealed in argon gas ambient. The as-deposited p-type Cu2O thin films exhibited Cu2O (111), Cu2O (220), and Cu2O (200) X-ray diffraction peaks. Increasing the post-annealing temperature in Ar gas resulted in a shifting of the Cu2O (111) and the Cu2O (200) diffraction peaks towards lower and higher angles, respectively. At an annealing temperature of 550 ◦C, the Cu2O (200) diffraction peaks was strongest. The resistivity, hole concentration and mobility of the p-type Cu2O thin film with an annealing temperature of 550 ◦C were 179.7 Ω·cm, 1.994 × 1015 cm−3 and 17.43 cm2/V·s, respectively.