Influence of single layer thickness on the performance of undoped and Mg-doped CuCrO2 thin films by sol–gel processing

Transparent conductive thin films of copper chromium oxide were processed on borosilicate glass by sol–gel technique. The resistivity of the films was decreased by lowering the single layer thickness of multi-layer stacks deposited by dip-coating, as well as by doping with magnesium. The additional effort of increasing the number of coating cycles from four to fifteen and sintering after each coating resulted in denser films with increased crystallite size. But whereas conductivity was improved by this procedure, the transmittance of the thin films simultaneously dropped by more than 10%. The optimum values obtained for an Mg-doped sample were ρ = 0.38Ω cm at T = 26.8%.