Author(s)

Sylvester Lekoo Mammah, Fidelix Ekeoma Opara, Valentine Benjamin Omubo-Pepple, Joseph Effiom-Edem Ntibi, Sabastine Chukwuemeka Ezugwu, Fabian Ifeanyichukwu Ezema

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty of Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria;.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Western University—Canada, London, Canada;.
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria;.
Department of Science Laboratory Technology, School of Applied Sciences, Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, Nigeria;.
Federal College of Education, Obudu, Nigeria.

Thin films of CuO having an average thickness of 720 nm were deposited on clean glass substrates using the Aqueous Chemical Growth (ACG) method with Cu(NO₃)₂ and C₆H₁₂N₄ as precursors and annealed at different temperatures in order to determine the effect of annealing temperature on their optical and solid state properties. The study was carried out using Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) spectroscopy for t thickness and chemical composition, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) for crystallographic structure and a UV-VIS spectrophotometer for spectral analysis. The results indicate that the absorbance and absorption/extinction coefficient of the films vary inversely with annealing temperature while the transmittance, reflectance, direct band gap, real/imaginary dielectric constants and refractive index vary directly with annealing temperature. The results further indicate an improvement in crystallinity as annealing temperature increases. The as-deposited and annealed ACG CuO thin films were found to be suitable for use as window layer in solar cells among other electronic and optoelectronic applications.

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Mammah, S. , Opara, F. , Omubo-Pepple, V. , Ntibi, J. , Ezugwu, S. and Ezema, F. (2013) Annealing effect on the optical and solid state properties of cupric oxide thin films deposited using the Aqueous Chemical Growth (ACG) method. Natural Science, 5, 389-399. doi: 10.4236/ns.2013.53052.