Structural, linear/nonlinear optical characteristics and radiation shielding effectiveness of Cu4O3/Cu2O dual-phase thin films: Influence of oxygen flow rate in reactive sputtering process

In the present work, we investigated the impact of oxygen flow rate on the structural, linear, and nonlinear optical characteristics while also evaluating the radiation shielding effectiveness during reactive radio frequency (rf) sputtering in the deposition of Cu4O3/Cu2O dual-phase thin films. Microstructural analysis revealed distinct changes with increased OFRs, switching from a Cu2O cubic structure phase to a Cu4O3 tetragonal structure phase. The XRD patterns revealed good crystallinity, and the crystallite size of the film reduced from 28 nm to 22 nm, and the microstrain exhibited an opposing trend as the oxygen flow rate increased. In contrast, investigating the optical properties of dual-phase Cu4O3 and Cu2O thin films using UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy revealed intriguing trends in the absorbance spectra, absorption coefficient, and extension index. The apparent bandgap increases from 2.0 eV to 2.62 eV with increasing oxygen flow rates. In addition, nonlinear optical parameters, including the nonlinear refractive index n(2) linear, nonlinear sensitivity (chi(1) and chi(3)), and nonlinear absorption coefficient beta(c) were calculated to demonstrate the applicability of these materials. The dual-phase structure of the films enhances their potential for effective radiation shielding. Our findings provide valuable insights into the design of properties of Cu4O3/Cu2O dual-phase thin films for applications ranging from photoelectric and nonlinear optical devices to radiation shielding effectiveness.