Substrate Temperature Influenced Structural and Electrical Behaviour of RF Magnetron Sputtered Ag2Cu2O3 Films

Ag2Cu2O3 films were deposited on glass and silicon substrates by RF magnetron sputtering of metallic equimolar (Ag50Cu50) alloy target in Ar-O-2 mixture at different substrate temperature (T-s) ranging between 303 and 523 K. The effect of T-s on the core level binding energies, structural and electrical properties of the films was systematically studied. The films deposited at room temperature were amorphous. The films deposited at 373 K were polycrystalline and the crystallinity was increased when the T-s was increased to 423 K. The films deposited at 423 K and subsequently annealed at 498 K exhibits single phase Ag2Cu2O3. In the case of films deposited at higher T-s of 523 K, Ag2O was decomposed into Ag. The electrical resistivity of the films deposited at 303 K was 1.2 x 10(-5) Omega cm, whereas the films formed at 423 K and subsequently annealed at 498 K showed electrical resistivity of 2.2 x 10(-3) Omega cm due to improvement in the crystallinity of single phase Ag2Cu2O3.