Structural and optical properties of RF magnetron reactively sputtered Ag2O film

A series of 〈111〉 oriented Ag2O films was deposited onto glass substrates by using RF magnetron reactive sputtering at different flow ratios (FRs) of oxygen to argon. The Ag2O film deposited at FR = 0.667 was the best 〈111〉 oriented film due to dual contributions from both lattice strain and film stress. The films’ transmissivity of over 70% in the near-infrared region indicated that Ag2O films are not suitable for applications as transparent conductive films in the visible region. Ag2O films deposited at FRs from 0.467 to 0.800 had optical band gaps ranging from 3.266 eV to 3.107 eV. The redshift in the films’ absorption edge may be attributed to the decrease in the lattice strain with increasing in FR.