Perspectives of development of TCO and TOS thin films based on (Ti-Cu)oxide composites

• Multi-magnetron sputtering system has been developed and applied.
• (Ti-Cu)Ox thin films have been prepared using multi-magnetron sputtering system.
• Manufactured (Ti-Cu)Ox thin films were p-type transparent oxide semiconductors.

The present paper contains a short discussion on possibilities and difficulties connected with fabrication of transparent oxide conductors and semiconductors for the use in transparent electronics. As an example the method of preparation of mixed (Ti-Cu)Ox thin films using multi-magnetron co-sputtering method together with basic research of their structure, optical and electrical properties have been presented. By selection of the magnetrons' powering conditions, thin films with different Cu/Ti chemical compositions were prepared. Structure investigations using x-ray diffraction method did not reveal any crystalline phases in fabricated samples. However, further investigations using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy allowed determination that the films were composed from the mixture of TiO2 and Cu2O phases. Electrical studies revealed that prepared thin films were semiconducting with p-type of electrical conduction. Increasing Cu amount in the thin films resulted in decreasing of their resistivity from ~ 105 Ωcm to ~ 10− 2 Ωcm but simultaneously the transparency dropped from about 80% to 40% in the visible wavelength range.