Annealing temperature effect on nanostructure and phase transition of copper oxide thin films

This paper addresses the annealing temperature effect on nanostructure and phase transition of copper oxide thin films, deposited by PVD method on glass substrate (at 110 nm thickness) and post annealed at different temperatures (200-400°C) with a flow of 1 cm3s-1 Oxygen. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed for crystallographic and phase analyses, while atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used for morphology investigation. The results showed (CuO2) cuprite phase for samples annealed at 200 and 250°C and (CuO) tenorite phase for samples annealed at 350 and 400°C, while sample annealed at 300°C had a complex phases (CuO2 and CuO). The size of the grains increased, but roughness increased and then decreased by increasing of annealing temperature. Furthermore, calculated activation energy from grain diameter (at arrhenius plot) was 0.54 eV.