Effect of Ni doping on the structural, electrical, and optical properties of transparent CuCrO2 films grown using pulsed laser deposition

In this study, the structural, electrical, and optical properties of CuCr1−xNixO2 epitaxial films (x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05), which exhibited p-type properties, were investigated. The (001)-oriented epitaxial films were deposited on c-plane α-Al2O3 substrates using pulsed laser deposition at a growth temperature of 700 °C and oxygen pressure of 10 mTorr. The optical energy band gap of the CuCr0.95Ni0.05O2 film was determined to be 3.22 eV. The hole carrier concentration of the CuCrO2 film increased from 5.1 × 1014 to 2.2 × 1017 cm−3 upon doping with 5 at% Ni. Based on Hall measurement and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results, it was suggested that the substituted Ni2+ dopants at Cr3+ sites formed an acceptor level without any charge compensation with Cu2+ and/or Cr4+.