Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics 223 (2020) 165408 Available online 12 August 2020 0030-4026/© 2020 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Enhancement in optoelectronic nature of facile spray fabricated Ce co-doped CdO:Zn flms for TCO applications R. Sarath babu a , Y. Narasimha murthy b, *, K. Hari Prasad c , T. Alshahrani d , Sarah J. McCormack e , Mohd Shkir f , S. AlFaify f a Research Scholar, Department of Physics, Rayalaseema University, Kurnool 518007, India b Department of Physics, SSBN Degree and PG College, Anantapur 515001, India c Department of Physics, Institute of Aeronautical Engineering, Dundigal, Hyderabad, 500043, India d Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, 11671 Saudi Arabia e Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland f Advanced Functional Materials and Optoelectronics Laboratory (AFMOL), Department of Physics, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, 61413, Saudi Arabia A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Nebulized spray pyrolysis Ce co-doped CdO:Zn thin flm Structural Optical properties Hall effect ABSTRACT Cerium co-doped CdO:Zn (Ce@CdO:Zn) transparent conducting oxide flms were deposited onto glass by a cost-effective nebulizer spray procedure. X-ray diffraction (XRD) investigation on flms shows that formation of cubic structure with (111) and (200) orientations for CdO:Zn and Ce@CdO:Zn flms, respectively. Surface topography study discovered the foundation of compact grains for 1.5 wt.% Ce-doped flm. EDX spectrum possesses the Cd, Zn, and Ce in Ce doped CdO: Zn flm. Ce doped flms exhibited maximum transparency and highest bandgap (E g ) value in comparison with pristine CdO:Zn flm and the E g values are noticed between 2.64–2.87 eV. Hall- Effect study evinced that Ce doping enhanced the contents of the carrier and lessen the electrical resistivity. The ρ values cut from 9.84 × 10 –3 Ω cm to 6.40 × 10 4 Ω cm when Ce % rise from 0–1.5 wt.%. The obtained carrier concentration value of CdO:Zn is 4.02 × 10 19 cm 3 and enlarged to 8.72 × 10 20 cm 3 for 1.5 wt.% Ce co-doped flm. The Figure of merit amplifed from 1.1–9.4 × 10 4 Ω 1 on growing the Ce content to 1.5 wt.% from 0. 1. Outline Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs)like: undoped and with doping In 2 O 3 , SnO 2 , CdO, and ZnO, are the most favorable materials in optoelectronics because of their inimitable, properties of large electro-conductivity, and good transmittance in the Vis-NIR region. Amongst the existing TCOs, CdO possesses interesting properties such as chemo-thermal constancy, incomparable carrier concen- trations, easy cubic system and huge mobility of electrons and also it has largely spread s-like conduction band (CB) and a minor carrier m* makes it appropriate aspirant for phototransistor, Opto-communication, solar cell, and IR heat mirror usages [1–6]. To enhance the bandgap (E g ) and electrical chattels, CdO flms are doped with some metallic ions like Sn, In, Sc, Al, and Y [7]. Some elements like Eu, Dy, Sm, etc. from rare earth verifed to be potential dopants to advance the electrical transport in CdO [8–10]. Among various rare earth, cerium (Ce) is picked in current work as a dopant due to its rapid ion motion and basicity of surface and rise in oxygen vacancies * Corresponding authors. E-mail address: yayavaram@yahoo.com (Y.N. murthy). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Optik journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijleo https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2020.165408 Received 13 April 2020; Received in revised form 4 August 2020; Accepted 8 August 2020