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.