Effect of oxygen pressure on the properties of n-type cuprous oxide films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

The quality of the n-type cuprous oxide film is the key to improving the conversion efficiency of the cuprous oxide homojunction solar thin film battery, and its preparation is very difficult. In this paper, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was used to stably prepare n-type Cu2O films on (0001) sapphire (c-Al2O3) substrates, and the influence of the oxygen pressure in the chamber on the structure and electrical properties of the films was studied in detail. The measurments of X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, and Hall effect show that the Cu2O films exhibited n-type conductivity uder the oxygen pressure of 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 Pa, respectively. At the same time, the film under the oxygen pressure of 0.5 Pa produce the best crystal quality and electrical properties of an electron concentration of 2.753×1011cm-3and mobility of 19.76cm2/vs.