Correlation between structure and electrical resistivity of W-Cu thin films prepared by GLAD co-sputtering

W-Cu thin films were co-deposited by magnetron sputtering using the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method. The deposition angle of W and Cu targets was fixed at 80°, and their currents were inversely and systematically changed from 50 to 140 mA. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction were used to investigate the morphology and the elemental composition of the films. Electrical properties were also studied by the van der Pauw technique. An increase of the W target current and a decrease of the Cu target produced an improvement of the inclined columnar and porous structure. The W-to-Cu weight concentration ratio was tuned from 0.68 up to 19. WCu films exhibited a diffracted signal corresponding to the (100) planes of the bcc tungsten structure for the highest W current intensities whereas the (111) peak due to the fcc copper phase was measured when the Cu target current increased. The dc electrical resistivity measured at room temperature was gradually changed from 3.59 × 10− 7 up to 9.90 × 10− 6 Ωm by means of an inverse variation of W and Cu target currents. The Cu-rich films exhibited a non-reversible resistivity vs. temperature evolution due to thermal oxidation whereas those co-sputtered with the highest W target currents showed a sudden increase of resistivity when the temperature was above 400 K.