Sample preparation induced phase transitions in solution deposited copper selenide thin films

Ion beam irradiation causes Klockmannite CuSe to lose Se and transform into β-Cu2Se. Caution must be taken when using the dual beam FIB for preparing TEM specimen.

Heat-Up Colloidal Synthesis of Shape-Controlled Cu-Se-S Nanostructures—Role of Precursor and Surfactant Reactivity and Performance in N2 Electroreduction

Copper selenide-sulfide nanostructures were synthesized using metal-organic chemical routes in the presence of Cu- and Se-precursors as well as S-containing compounds. Our goal was first to examine if the initial Cu/Se 1:1 molar proportion in the starting reagents would always lead to equiatomic composition in the final product, depending on other synthesis parameters which affect the reagents reactivity. Such reaction conditions were the types of precursors, surfactants and other reagents, as well as the synthesis temperature. The use of ‘hot-injection’ processes was avoided, focusing on ‘non-injection’ ones; that is, only heat-up protocols were employed, which have the advantage of simple operation and scalability. All reagents were mixed at room temperature followed by further heating to a selected high temperature. It was found that for samples with particles of bigger size and anisotropic shape the CuSe composition was favored, whereas particles with smaller size and spherical shape possessed a Cu2−xSe phase, especially when no sulfur was present. Apart from elemental Se, Al2Se3 was used as an efficient selenium source for the first time for the acquisition of copper selenide nanostructures. The use of dodecanethiol in the presence of trioctylphosphine and elemental Se promoted the incorporation of sulfur in the materials crystal lattice, leading to Cu-Se-S compositions. A variety of techniques were used to characterize the formed nanomaterials such as XRD, TEM, HRTEM, STEM-EDX, AFM and UV-Vis-NIR. Promising results, especially for thin anisotropic nanoplates for use as electrocatalysts in nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), were obtained.

Effect of Lanthanum Substrates on the Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of Copper Selenide Thin Films Designed for 5G Technologies

In this work, copper selenide thin films coated onto glass and transparent lanthanum substrates are studied. The (glass, La)/CuSe thin films which are prepared by the thermal evaporation technique under a vacuum pressure of 10− 5 mbar are structurally, morphologically, optically, dielectrically and electrically characterized. Lanthanum substrates improved the crystallinity by increasing the crystallite size and decreasing both of the microstrains and defect density of copper selenide. La substrates redshifts the energy band gap and doubled the dielectric constant values. In addition, employing Drude-Lorentz approaches for optical conduction to fit the dielectric constant provided information about the effects of La substrates on the drift mobility, plasmon frequency, free carrier density and scattering times at femtosecond level. The drift mobility increased and the plasmon frequency range is modified when La substrates are used. Verifying impedance spectroscopy test in the microwave frequency domain have shown that the La(gate)/CuSe/Ag (source) transistors can be employed as band pass filter suitable for 5G technologies. The microwave cutoff frequency reached ~ 5.0 GHz at a notch frequency of 2.80 GHz of the La/CuSe/Ag highpass filters.