Formation of Cupric Oxide Films on Quartz Substrates by Annealing the Copper Films

Abstract

In the present work, cupric oxide (CuO) films were obtained through thermal annealing of the copper (Cu) films deposited on quartz substrates by DC magnetron sputtering method. The annealing was performed in air atmosphere for different times ranging from 60-240 min at temperature of 400 ºC. The influence of annealing times on structural and morphological properties of the films was investigated by different analyses. The XRD results showed that the as-deposited film was Cu, while those annealed at different times were composed of CuO. By increasing annealing times up to 180 min, the intensity of CuO diffraction peaks increased and further enhancement of annealing times led to decrease of the crystallinity. Also, the AFM images of the films conformed the dependence of surface morphology to annealing times.