Cu2O epitaxial films with domain structures prepared on Y-stabilized ZrO2 substrates by pulsed laser deposition

Copper oxide films have been deposited on the Y-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ) (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition and the effect of oxygen pressure (PO2) on the film properties was investigated in detail. The phase, crystallinity, and surface morphology of the films were strongly influenced by PO2 and the film prepared at 0.09 Pa was pure cuprous oxide (Cu2O) having the best film crystallinity. An out-of-plane epitaxial relationship of Cu2O (110)parallel to YSZ (100) with six different kinds of domain structure were observed for the 0.09 Pa-deposited sample and the corresponding in-plane epitaxial relationships were deduced. The lowest resistivity of 13.412 Omega cm and highest Hall mobility of 16.3 cm(2) v(-1) s(-1) were also obtained for the film deposited at 0.09 Pa. The optical band gap of the as-prepared copper oxide films varied from 2.37 to 2.57 eV.