Highly Conductive and Visibly Transparent p-Type CuCrO₂ Films by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis

The development of high-performing p-type transparent conducting oxides will enable immense progress in the fabrication of optoelectronic devices including invisible electronics and all-oxide power electronics. While n-type transparent electrodes have already reached widespread industrial production, the lack of p-type counterparts with comparable transparency and conductivity has created a bottleneck for the development of next-generation optoelectronic devices. In this work, we present the fabrication of delafossite copper chromium oxide p-type transparent electrodes with outstanding optical and electrical properties. These layers were deposited using ultrasonic spray pyrolysis, a wet chemical method that is fast, simple, and scalable. Through careful screening of the deposition conditions, highly crystalline, dense, and smooth CuCrO2 coatings were obtained. A detailed investigation of the role played by the deposition temperature and the cation ratio enabled the properties of the prepared layers to be reliably tuned, as verified using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, optical spectroscopy, Hall effect measurements, and electron and atomic force microscopies. We demonstrate record conductivities for solution-processed CuCrO2, exceeding 100 S cm–1, and we also obtained the highest value for two separate figures of merit for p-type transparent conducting oxides. These performances position solution-deposited CuCrO2 as the leading p-type transparent-conducting oxide currently available.