Effect of substrate temperature on the properties of copper nitride thin films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering

Copper nitride (Cu3N) thin films were deposited on glass substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering with changing various substrate temperatures. The effects of substrate temperature on the structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of the Cu3N thin films were investigated. The results showed that the substrate temperature has a significant effect on the properties of the Cu3N thin films. The preferential orientation of the films was transformed from Cu3N (100) to Cu (111) and the grain size was gradually increased with increasing the substrate temperature. The optical transmittance begins to appear at 800 nm for the film deposited at 25 °C, where the highest value of the transmittance was obtained. The blueshift of optical band gap on carrier concentration is well described by the Burstein-Moss effect.