Characterization of CuO(1Â 1Â 1)/MgO(1Â 0Â 0) films grown under two different PLD backgrounds

► CuO films were deposited on MgO (1 0 0) substrates by two PLD configurations to investigate the effect of growth background on film properties. ► Changing the substrate temperature was found to have a limited effect on the structural properties of the films grown in RF-plasma assisted background while it has a significant effect in the case of the standard gas background. ► The RF-plasma enhanced the layer-by-layer growth tendency making the CuO films highly textured in (1 1 1) direction, atomically smooth and chemically stoichiometric. ► Optoelectronic properties of best obtained CuO film found to be suitable for PV device application. ► The discussed results could be useful for better understanding the effect of PLD background control on CuO film quality.