Structure, conductivity, and optical absorption of Ag2−xO films

Evaporation of Ag in the presence of an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) oxygen plasma was used to deposit Ag2−xO films with a range of stoichiometries onto r-plane sapphire substrates. A quartz crystal oscillator (QCO) was used to accurately measure the silver and oxygen arrival rates and establish the O/Ag flux ratio needed to produce films with nominal Ag2O stoichiometry. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicates that the Ag2−xO films are not single phase but contain signatures of coexisting Ag2O and AgO components. XRD shows that the lattice matching with the r-plane sapphire substrate causes the Ag2O phase to grow with <002> heteroepitaxial crystallites coexisting with crystallites having <111> normal and random in-plane orientation. The AgO phase also forms with crystallites having <002> heteroepitaxy as well as crystallites with <111> normal and random in-plane orientation. The mixed phase Ag2−xO films exhibit approximately 77% optical transmission over the visible range (500 nm to 700 nm) and have a single absorption edge near 3.3 eV. Four-point van der Pauw conductivity and Hall effect measurements indicate that the Ag2−xO films are p-type with a conductivity on the order of 3 × 10− 3 Ω− 1 cm− 1.