Fabrication of Cu2O nanocrystalline thin films photosensor prepared by RF sputtering technique

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanocrystalline thin films were prepared on two types of substrates known as crystalline silicon and amorphous glass, by radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtering method. Scanning electron microscopy images confirmed that Cu2O particles covered the entire surface of both substrates with smoothing distribution. The root mean square surface roughness for the prepared Cu2O thin films on glass and Si (111) substrates is 4.16, and 3.36 nm, respectively. Meanwhile, X-ray diffraction results demonstrated that the two phases of Cu2O and CuO were produced on Si (111) and glass substrates. The optical bandgap of Cu2O thin films synthesised on glass substrate is 2.42 eV. Furthermore, the prepared Cu2O nanocrystalline thin films have showed low reflectance value in the visible spectrum. Metal-Semiconductor-Metal photodetector based Cu2O nanocrystalline thin films deposited onto Si (111) was fabricated using aluminium and platinum, with the current-voltage and photoresponse characteristic investigated under various applied bias voltages. The fabricated Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (M-S-M) photodetector had shown 126% sensitivity in the presence of 10 mW/cm2 of 490 nm light with 1.0 V bias, displaying 90 and 100 ms response and recovery times, respectively. These findings have demonstrated the suitability of M-S-M Cu2O photodetector as an affordable photosensor in the future.