Effect of temperature and additive on the structural, morphological and optical properties of Cu2O thin films

Abstract In the current work, electrodeposition method has been used to prepare Cu 2 O thin films on ITO substrates. The bath temperature was controlled from 40 to 80 °C and additive concentration varied from 2 to 10 mM. The structure, surface morphology and optical properties of the as-prepared films were investigated by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscope (SEM), Raman spectrophotometer and UV–visible (vis) spectrophotometer. The morphology of the Cu 2 O films varies obviously at different bath temperature and additive concentration. Intensity of Raman peaks increase with the increase of KCl concentration. UV–vis absorption spectra measurements have shown the average absorbance for the film deposited at 80 °C is higher than those deposited at 40 and 60 °C. Meanwhile, average absorbance of the Cu 2 O thin film deposited at 10 mM KCl is larger than those deposited at 2 and 5 mM KCl, which should be associated with the morphology.