Deposition of copper oxide thin films on different substrates by pulsed excimer laser ablation

Stoichiometric films of cupric and cuprous oxide are deposited on Si, MgO, and Y-ZrO2 substrates by pulsed excimer laser ablation technique. It is found that the equilibrium phase diagram based considerations dictate the phase formation. The films are characterized by small-angle x-ray diffraction, infrared, and UV-visible spectroscopies and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. It is shown that epitaxy of Cu2O films can be realized on single crystal MgO (100) substrates and the corresponding film resistivity is of the order of 40–60 Ω cm.