The influence of nitrogen doping on the electrical and vibrational properties of Cu₂O

Abstract

Thin films of nitrogen‐doped cuprous oxide (Cu2O:N) have been deposited by means of direct‐current and radio‐frequency sputtering using a metallic copper target and a mixture of argon, oxygen, and nitrogen for generating the plasma. The doping with nitrogen appears to significantly increase the electrical conductivity of the films. All samples exhibit a temperature‐activated transport behavior. It is shown that the activation energy decreases proportionally to the reciprocal distance between nitrogen atoms, which indicates that a constant fraction of nitrogen is most likely substitutionally incorporated on oxygen site in the Cu2O lattice and acts as an acceptor. Nevertheless, Raman measurements suggest that molecular nitrogen can also be found in the samples, bound at different sites inside the bulk and at the surface.

Localized Photoluminescence Imaging of Bi‐Layered Cuprous/Cupric Oxide Semiconductor Films by Synchrotron Radiation

“…Where, GZO plays roles as a conductive film and an n‐type semiconductor that formed n‐p junction with a p‐type semiconductor of Cu 2 O. The Cu 2 O film has attracted increasing attention as a component of electric devices such as photovoltaic devices, photonic crystal, and photocatalysis due to its optical and electrical characteristics . Not only as‐deposited Cu 2 O film but also different photoluminescence (characteristics) films, i.e., Cu 2 O/CuO bi‐layered films, were also prepared by applying an annealing heat‐treatment at 573 K and 673 K for 3.6 ks (1 h) in air to the electrodeposited Cu 2 O film.…”

“…The Cu 2 O film has attracted increasing attention as a component of electric devices such as photovoltaic devices, [19][20][21][22] photonic crystal, [23] and photocatalysis [24] due to its optical and electrical characteristics. [25][26][27] Not only as-deposited Cu 2 O film but also different photoluminescence (characteristics) films, i.e., Cu 2 O/CuO [28] bi-layered films, were also prepared by applying an annealing heat-treatment at 573 K and 673 K for 3.6 ks (1 h) in air to the electrodeposited Cu 2 O film. It is well known that the luminescence properties of CuO formed by annealing are different from that of Cu 2 O.…”

Formation of shallow boron emitters in crystalline silicon using flash lamp annealing: Role of excess silicon interstitials

“…Cu 2 O has a rich defect fauna and acceptor and donor levels have been reported at 0.08-1.08 eV above E v [85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96]. There seems to exist a general consesus that the Cu vacancy (v Cu ) is the dominant acceptor giving rise to the intrinsic p-type conduction in Cu 2 O [97][98][99][100], but experimentally the exact position of the defect level is disputed [88-90, 92, 101], although most reports place its level around 0.25 eV above E v .…”

“…The defect is also predicted to have two different configurations giving rise to an additional defect level in the E g [97-99, 102, 103]. Further, shallower levels have been ascribed to extrinsic defects [85,101,[104][105][106].…”

“…However, the hypothesis has not been verified by other authors and is not widely adopted in the field. An alternative explanation of the acceptor level variation has recently been put forward by Benz et al [85]. They report on N doped Cu 2 O and find that the acceptor ionization energy, E a , depends on the…”