AACVD of Cu3N on Al2O3 Using CuCl2 and NH3

Matthew Zervos

doi:10.3390/ma15248966

AACVD of Cu₃N on Al₂O₃ Using CuCl₂ and NH₃

Materials (Basel). 2022 Dec 15;15(24):8966. doi: 10.3390/ma15248966.

Author

Matthew Zervos¹

Affiliation

¹ Nanostructured Materials and Devices Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus.

Abstract

Cu₃N has been grown on m-Al₂O₃ by aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition using 0.1 M CuCl₂ in CH₃CH₂OH under an excess of NH₃ at 600 °C, which led to the deposition of Cu that was subsequently converted into Cu₃N under NH₃: O₂ at 400 °C in a two-step process without exposure to the ambient. The reaction of CuCl₂ with an excess of NH₃ did not lead to the growth of Cu₃N, which is different to the case of halide vapor phase epitaxy of III-V semiconductors. The Cu₃N layers obtained in this way had an anti-ReO₃ cubic crystal structure with a lattice constant of 3.8 Å and were found to be persistently n-type, with a room temperature carrier density of n = 2 × 10¹⁶ cm^-3 and mobility of µ_n = 32 cm²/Vs. The surface depletion, calculated in the effective mass approximation, was found to extend over ~0.15 µm by considering a surface barrier height of ϕ_B = 0.4 eV related to the formation of native Cu₂O.

Keywords: chemical vapor deposition; copper nitride; electrical properties; structural.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.