Morphological study of PLD grown CuO films on SrTiO3, sapphire, quartz and MgO substrates

Cupric oxide (CuO) films were prepared on various substrates by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique to investigate their effects on surface morphology. As the substrate temperature decreased, the film surface roughness was also observed to decrease. This trend was also correlated with the polycrystalline structure of the films. Deposition at low pressures produced greater surface roughness because larger crystallites emerged from the surface, while higher oxygen pressure under an adjusted target–substrate distance produced smaller crystallites and a smoother film surface. Reducing the laser energy density led to lower densities and smaller micro-liquid droplets formed on the surfaces. The presented results could be useful for better understanding the effect of process parameters control on CuO film morphology. It could also serve as a reference for the fabrication of CuO-based devices, in which the surface quality of the CuO films is highly important.