Review in Optoelectronic Properties of p-type CuCrO2 Transparent Conductive Films

Abstract This work aims to give readers a comprehensive understanding of the optoelectronic properties of the CuCrO2 delafossite oxide. CuCrO2 is a transparent conductive thin film material with excellent intrinsic p-type conductivity. Lots of excellent properties has been investigated extensively, such as the photocatalytic properties, the thermoelectric properties and the ferromagnetic properties, etc. This work generally introduces the various properties and application scenarios of CuCrO2. With the lattice diagram and XRD spectrum, the crystal structure of CuCrO2 is discussed in detail, which shows that the 3R-CuCrO2 is more stable than 2H-CuCrO2. After comparison between the optoelectronic properties between CuCrO2 and other Ag- and Cu-based delafossite oxide, we conclude that CuCrO2 has the best optoelectronic properties among those delafossite materials, and the solubility for external impurity is also the highest. Then this work summarizes the advantages of CuCrO2 in the applications of optoelectronic devices. The band structure of CuCrO2 calculated by PBE, PBE+U and HSE functionals are summarized in detail. The p-type conductivity of CuCrO2 is analyzed and explained through the spin density function image, which shows that the holes are deduced from the copper vacancies, interstitial oxygen, and external impurity substituting Cr sites. At last, the recent researches on the pure CuCrO2 and Mg/Ni doping CuCrO2 are discussed elaborately. We outlook the current status of the work about the CuCrO2 delafossite oxide and the possible work in the future.