Improving the electrical conductivity of CuCrO2 thin film by N doping

N-doped CuCrO2 thin films were prepared by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The XRD and XPS measurements were used to confirm the existence of the N acceptors in CuCrO2 thin films. Hall measurements show the p-type conduction for all films. The electrical conductivity increases rapidly with the increase in N doping concentration, and the maximum of the electrical conductivity of 17 S cm−1 is achieved for the film deposited with 30 vol.% N2O, which is about three orders of magnitude higher than that of the undoped CuCrO2 thin film. Upon increasing the doping concentrations the band gaps of N-doped CuCrO2 thin films increase due to the Burstein-Moss shift.