Undoped <i>n</i>-Type Cu₂O: Fact or Fiction?

Abstract

Cuprous oxide is widely known to be a native p -type semiconductor. Despite this, reports of electrodeposited films of n -type Cu 2 O continue to appear in the literature, with oxygen vacancies commonly implicated as the electron-donating defect. Through first-principles calculations, we demonstrate conclusively that intrinsic n -type defects or defect complexes in Cu 2 O cannot be the source of any n -type behavior displayed by electrodeposited samples. In light of these results, we discuss the experimental findings.