Preparation and properties of p-type transparent conductive Cu-doped NiO films

The NiO-Cu composite films with various Cu contents of 0-18.17 at.% are deposited on a glass substrate. An ultra high electrical resistivity (ρ) is obtained and cannot be detected by a four point probe measurement when the Cu content in the films is lower than 6.97 at.%. The ρ value is reduced significantly to 35.8 Ω-cm as Cu content is increased to 9.18 at.%, and it further decreases to 0.02 Ω-cm when the Cu content further increases to 18.17 at.%. The Hall measurement for all Cu-doped NiO films shows p-type conduction. In addition, the transmittance of NiO films also decreases continuously from 96% to 43% as Cu content increases from 0 to 18.17 at.%. The XRD patterns of Cu-doped NiO films show that only NiO peaks appear and the crystallinity of NiO films degrades as Cu content exceeds 6.97 at.%. A large amount of lattice sites of Ni²⁺ ions in a NiO crystallite is replaced by the Cu⁺ ions that lead to p-type conduction and result in the degradation of crystallinity for NiO-Cu composite films that have a higher Cu content.