Preparation of Cu–Fe–O thin films via post oxidation of iron/copper bilayers: structural, optical and electrical properties

Cu–Fe–O thin films were prepared via vacuum thermal evaporation of Fe and Cu after what the obtained bilayer Fe\Cu was annealed in free air at different temperatures during 2 h. The obtained Cu–Fe–O thin films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), electrical and spectrophotometric measurements. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed the presence of Fe2O3, CuO and CuFeO2 phases. Cu–Fe–O thin films exhibit rough surfaces by analyzing the film morphologies by scanning electron microscopy. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) technique was used to evaluate Cu–Fe–O thin films stoichiometry. The optical properties reveal that the absorption coefficient of Cu–Fe–O thin films is larger than 105 cm−1 and two optical direct band gaps in the range 1.65–2.2 eV were found. The Wemple and DiDomenico model was used to study the dispersion of the refractive index in terms of the single oscillator model. So, optical parameters such as refractive index, extinction coefficient, oscillator energy and dispersion energy were calculated. In addition and by using the model of Spitzer and Fan, the electrical free carrier susceptibility and the carrier concentration on the effective mass ratio were evaluated. All the samples present relatively high electrical resistivity.