p- ton-Type Conversion and Nonmetal–Metal Transition of Lithium-Inserted Cu₃N Films

Abstract

Cu3N is a semiconductor with a bandgap of ∼1.4 eV, which is ideal for solar energy conversion applications. To obtain high-efficiency Cu3N-based solar cells, the fabrication of p-n homojunctions is desirable. Studies on the bipolar doping of Cu3N have been initiated very recently. In this study, we demonstrate that lithium-insertion into p-type Cu3N films using a soft chemical treatment causes a p- to n-type conversion and nonmetal–metal transition. This lithium insertion was achieved by treating p-type Cu3N films with n-butyllithium solutions at moderate temperatures of 313–343 K, such that the lithium atoms diffused into Cu3N and occupied the vacant interstitial sites of the crystalline lattice. As a result, the lithium-inserted Cu3N (Li x Cu3N) films became n-type semiconductors, indicating that the lithium atoms act as electron donors. Moreover, Li x Cu3N films with x > 0.05 were found to show metallic electrical conductivity with resistivities of (2–4) × 10–3 Ω cm. This metallic behavior was also observed in the optical transmittance and reflectance data. The findings of this study allowed us to prepare p-type, n-type, and metallic Cu3N-based films. These results may pave the way for the realization of nontoxic wholly Cu3N-based homojunction solar cells delivering high performance.

High‐Mobility Transparent p‐Type CuI Semiconducting Layers Fabricated on Flexible Plastic Sheets: Toward Flexible Transparent Electronics

“…CuI Films : CuI films were fabricated via the chemical reaction of Cu 3 N polycrystalline films with solid‐phase iodine (solid‐iodination method). The Cu 3 N precursors were reactively sputtered onto unheated glass and PET by reactive radio‐frequency magnetron sputtering . Subsequently, the Cu 3 N/glass and Cu 3 N/PET were placed in a glass bottle with the coated side of Cu 3 N facing up.…”

Photocatalytic Properties of Copper Nitride/Molybdenum Disulfide Composite Films Prepared by Magnetron Sputtering

“…Comparison of the diffraction patterns of different composite films showed that when the emission power of MoS2 was 2 W, the films appeared to be bulging at 23.3°, which was not a sharp peak. No diffraction peak was observed at 47.6°, indicating that sputtering MoS2 under power affects the crystal growth of Cu3N [41]. This phenomenon occurred because the entropy of Cu3N was high, causing it to lag behind the growth of MoS2 crystals.…”

A continuous crystallographic approach to generate cubic lattices and its effect on relative stiffness of architectured materials

“…Still, one can attribute coordinates (0, 0, 0.5) to this node, and the resulting lattice will be equivalent to the primitive cube. The structure is actually a perovskite (ABX 3 )-related structure with an empty A site [25]. If the structure is made of beams only, then the architecture can be considered as primitive-like.…”