REACTIVELY RADIO FREQUENCY SPUTTERED SILVER OXIDE THIN FILMS: PHASE EVOLUTION AND PHASE STABILITY

The main aim of this paper is to fabricate and characterize silver oxide thin films and to investigate the effect of processing parameters on the microstructure of deposited films. Radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering was used under oxygen-argon mixed gas atmosphere for fabrication. Oxide phase evolution and stability were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) of as-deposited and post deposition annealed films. In all cases, the hexagonal phase was initially observed which then got transformed to the cubic phase upon annealing films. The hexagonal–cubic "transition" temperature decreases initially upon increase of oxygen content, which is corroborated by optical spectra. The evolution of optical absorption edge was monitored by a spectrophotometer. A bandgap energy of 3.5 eV was deduced for Ag2O at 300 K. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has revealed the influence of deposition conditions on the surface morphology of the films.