Development of a fast annealing process to prepare transparent conductive Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films

• A fast annealing process with the atmospheric pressure plasma has been developed.
• The atmospheric pressure plasma can dramatically shorten the annealing time.
• CuCrO2 phase can be formed after the atmospheric pressure plasma annealing.
• Electrical conductivities of Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin film were 0.47–0.58 S/cm.
• Carrier concentrations of Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films were 4.8 × 1016–3.5 × 1017 cm− 3.

In this paper, a fast annealing process with the atmospheric pressure plasma to prepare the Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films is reported. The sol–gel derived thin films were deposited on quartz substrates and then annealed at 500 °C in air following the atmospheric pressure plasma with N2–(0–30%)O2. The single CuCrO2 phase was formed after the atmospheric pressure plasma annealing between N2–3%O2 and N2–10%O2. The chemical states of Cu and Cr cations in Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films were monovalent and trivalent, which were deduced from the binding energies of the Cu-2p3/2 and the Cr-2p3/2 spectrum at 932.3–932.5 eV and 576.0–576.2 eV, respectively. Optical bandgaps of Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films were 2.78–3.03 eV. Moreover, electrical conductivities and carrier concentrations of Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films were 0.47–0.58 Scm− 1 and 4.8 × 1016–3.5 × 1017 cm− 3. Additionally, the activation energy of the carrier conduction in the Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films was 80 meV. Hence, a fast annealing process using the atmospheric pressure plasma can provide an effective tool and a feasible method for preparing transparent conductive thin films.