2025/12/22 by Zainab Fatima, Isao Ohkubo, Satoshi Ishii +4
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Copper-based nanomaterials and applications #Epitaxial growth #GaN-based semiconductor devices and materials #Nanomaterials and Printing Technologies #Surface energy #Thin films #Transition metal nitrides
paper · doi:10.48505/nims.6044
openalex publication_date 2025/12/22 · openalex created_date 2025/12/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Crystal orientation control during copper nitride (Cu3N) epitaxial growth was achieved using reactive DC magnetron sputtering. Both the (100)-orientation and (111)-orientation were observed readily from X-ray diffraction measurements for Cu3N thin films grown on single-crystal MgO(100), MgO(111), SrTiO3(100), and sapphire(0001) substrates. The Cu3N(111) surface energy is greater than that of Cu3N(100), suggesting that the Cu3N(111) orientation has a lower formation probability than the Cu3N(100) orientation. To control the influence of surface energy, thin film growth parameters related to the thermodynamics and kinetics of epitaxial thin film growth were tuned. Growth of single (111)-oriented Cu3N epitaxial thin films, which has a higher surface energy orientation, was achieved on MgO(111) substrates. Optical band gaps of the single (111)-oriented Cu3N epitaxial thin film were 1.80 eV for direct transition and 0.82 eV for indirect transition, indicating formation of a reasonable electronic structure in single (111)-oriented Cu3N epitaxial thin films with higher surface energy.