Electrical and optical properties of silver oxide (Ag2O) thin films prepared by reactive electron beam evaporation

The recent investigations on Silver oxide thin films have shown promise in optical data storage. In the present paper, the electrical and optical properties of silver oxide films grown by reactive electron beam evaporation are reported. The growth parameter in the present study is the oxygen content in the film; it is achieved by varying the electron beam current in the range 30 - 100 mA keeping all other growth parameters constant. The vacuum chamber pressure (while Oxygen is present) is kept constant at 4.0 x 10(-4) Toff. The film am prepared at a 180degreesC. The electrical and optical properties have shown. a systematic variation with oxygen content in the film. The Optical band gap of the Ag2O films are observed to be in the order 3.3 eV. A high deposition rate (equivalently, low oxygen content in the film) has yielded a p-type film. These results are discussed with the partial ionization theory.