Plasma-enhanced pulsed laser deposition of copper oxide and zinc oxide thin films

Plasma-Enhanced Pulsed Laser Deposition (PE-PLD) is a technique for depositing metal oxide thin films that combines traditional PLD of metals with a low-temperature oxygen background plasma. This proof-of-concept study shows that PE-PLD can deposit copper oxide and zinc oxide films of similar properties to ones deposited using traditional PLD, without the need for substrate heating. Varying the pressure of the background plasma changed the stoichiometry and structure of the films. Stoichiometric copper oxide and zinc oxide films were deposited at pressures of 13 Pa and 7.5 Pa, respectively. The deposition rate was ∼5 nm/min and the films were polycrystalline with a crystal size in the range of 3 nm–15 nm. The dominant phase for ZnO was (110) and for CuO, they were (020) and (111¯), where (020) is known as a high-density phase not commonly seen in PLD films. The resistivity of the CuO film was 0.76 ± 0.05 Ω cm, in line with films produced using traditional PLD. Since PE-PLD does not use substrate heating or post-annealing, and the temperature of the oxygen background plasma is low, the deposition of films on heat-sensitive materials such as plastics is possible. Stoichiometric amorphous zinc oxide and copper oxide films were deposited on polyethylene (PE) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PFTE).