Cu2O epitaxial films with domain structures prepared on Y-stabilized ZrO2 substrates by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract Copper oxide films have been deposited on the Y-stabilized ZrO 2 (YSZ) (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition and the effect of oxygen pressure (P O2 ) on the film properties was investigated in detail. The phase, crystallinity, and surface morphology of the films were strongly influenced by P O2 and the film prepared at 0.09 Pa was pure cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O) having the best film crystallinity. An out-of-plane epitaxial relationship of Cu 2 O (110)∥YSZ (100) with six different kinds of domain structure were observed for the 0.09 Pa-deposited sample and the corresponding in-plane epitaxial relationships were deduced. The lowest resistivity of 13.4 Ω cm and highest Hall mobility of 16.3 cm 2  v −1  s −1 were also obtained for the film deposited at 0.09 Pa. The optical band gap of the as-prepared copper oxide films varied from 2.37 to 2.57 eV.