Structure, Optical Property and Thermal Stability of Copper Nitride Films Prepared by Reactive Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

Copper nitride (Cu3N) films were prepared by reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering at various nitrogen partial pressures, and the films were annealed at different temperatures. The crystal structure of the films was identified by X-ray diffraction technique. The Cu3N films have a cubic anti-ReO3 structure, and lattice constant is 0.3855 nm. With increasing nitrogen partial pressure, the Cu3N films are strongly textured with the crystal direction [100]. The atomic force microscope images show that the films presence a smooth and compact morphology with nanocrystallites of about 70 nm in size. The films were further characterized by UV-visible spectrometer, and the optical band gap of the films was calculated from the Tauc equation. The typical value of optical band gap of the films is about 1.75 eV, and it increases with increasing nitrogen partial pressure. The thermal property of the films was measured by thermogravimetry, and the decomposition temperature of the films was about 530 K.