Oxidation of sputtered Cu films during thermal annealing in flowing air

The article deals with oxidation of Cu films during post-deposition thermal annealing in flowing air. Cu films were sputtered from a pure Cu target in Ar using dc unbalanced magnetron. The copper oxide films formed during post-deposition thermal annealing were compared with CuOx films sputtered from Cu target in the mixture of Ar and O2. The oxidation behavior of the films was characterized by high-temperature thermogravimetry and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Thermal annealing was carried out in a wide range of temperatures from 300 to 1300°C. It was found that the CuO oxide decomposes into Cu2O+O at ~1040° C.