Chemical bath deposited (CBD) CuO thin films on n-silicon substrate for electronic and optical applications: Impact of growth time

Thin film of p-type cupric oxide (p-CuO) is grown on silicon (n-Si) substrate by, using chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique and a precise control of thickness from 60 nm to 178 nm has been achieved. The structural properties and stoichiometric composition of the grown films are observed to depend significantly on the growth time. The chemical composition, optical properties, and structural quality are investigated in detail by employing XRD, ellipsometric measurements and SEM images. Also, the elemental composition and the oxidation states of Cu and O in the grown samples have been studied in detail by XPS measurements. Thin film of 110 nm thicknesses exhibited the best performance in terms of crystal quality, refractive index, dielectric constant, band-gap, and optical properties. The study suggests synthesis route for developing high quality CuO thin film using CBD method for electronic and optical applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.