Study on the preparation and properties of copper nitride thin films

Copper nitride (Cu3N) thin films were prepared on glass substrates by reactive radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering under different nitrogen flow rate. The thermal stability of the Cu3N films was investigated through vacuum annealing treatment at different temperature. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and near-normal reflectance spectra were employed to characterize the films. The deposited Cu3N films take on a different preferred orientation, which changed from (1 1 1) to (1 0 0) with increase of N2 ratio. The grains size of thin films can become small when the N2 ratio increases. The Cu3N phase can completely decompose into Cu and N2 through vacuum annealing treatment at a temperature of 200 °C. The reflectance of as-deposited Cu3N films is quite different from decomposed films.