The structural characteristics of nano-copper thin films produced via laser-assisted electric wire explosion process

Abstract

Due to the wide range of important applications, the metal and metal oxide nanoparticles have increasing demand, so that many methods and technologies attempted to produce it. The Electric Wire Explosion (EWE) method is the most established method to produce nanometals and metal oxides in the form of either powders or thin films. In this study, copper and copper oxide films were prepared via electric wire explosion method with a developed laser igniting spark gap switch. The Cu thin films were prepared at different explosion voltages (4, 5 and 7kV) and then their structural properties were studied. The results show that the produced copper/copper oxides nanoparticles of thin films increased as the exploding voltage increased. The XRD test shows that the films crystallite size increased as the exploding voltage increased. FE-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images, are shows the decrease of grain size of thin films as the explosion voltage increase.