RT journal article
T1 Comprehensive Optoelectronic Study of Copper Nitride: Dielectric Function and Bandgap Energies
A1 Ballester, Manuel
A1 Marquez, Almudena P.
A1 Blanco Ollero, Eduardo
A1 Mánuel, José M.
A1 Rodriguez-Tapiador, Maria I.
A1 Fernandez, Susana M.
A1 Willomitzer, Florian
A1 Katsaggelos, Aggelos K.
A1 Márquez Navarro, Emilio José
A2 Física de la Materia Condensada
A2 Matemáticas
K1 copper nitride (Cu3N)
K1 thin films
K1 ellipsometry
K1 spectrophotometry
K1 optical properties
K1 bandgap analysis
K1 eco-friendly photovoltaic semiconductors
AB Copper nitride (Cu3N) is gaining attention as an eco-friendly thin-film semiconductor in amyriad of applications, including storage devices, microelectronic components, photodetectors, and photovoltaic cells. This work presents a detailed optoelectronic study of Cu3Nthin films grown by reactive RF-magnetron sputtering under pure N2. An overview of thestate-of-the-art literature on this material and its potential applications is also provided. Thestudied films consist of Cu3N polycrystals with a cubic anti-ReO3 type structure exhibitinga preferential (100) orientation. Their optical properties across the UV-Vis-NIR spectralrange were investigated using a combination of multi-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry,broadband transmission, and reflection measurements. Our model employs a stratifiedgeometrical approach, primarily to capture the depth-dependent compositional variationsof the Cu3N film while also accounting for surface roughness and the underlying glasssubstrate. The complex dielectric function of the film material is precisely determinedthrough an advanced dispersion model that combines multiple oscillators. By integrating the Tauc–Lorentz, Gaussian, and Drude models, this approach captures the distinctelectronic transitions of this polycrystal. This customized optical model allowed us toaccurate extract both the indirect (1.83–1.85 eV) and direct (2.38–2.39 eV) bandgaps. Ourmultifaceted characterization provides one of the most extensive studies of Cu3N thin filmsto date, paving the way for optimized device applications and broader utilization of thispromising binary semiconductor, and showing its particular potential for photovoltaicgiven its adequate bandgap energies for solar applications.
PB Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
SN 2079-4991
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39343
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/39343
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 05-nov-2026