“…Thin films and nanostructures of Cu 2 O have attracted great attention due to potential applications in photo voltaic devices, electrode material, sensors, catalysis, light emitting diodes, photoelectrochemical water splitting applications, hole-transporting layer in solar energy conversion devices and as a light-absorbing material [9][10][11]. Besides, it possesses many other interesting optoelectronic properties such as low cost, low electron affinity (3.2 eV), high hole mobility (256 cm 2 /V), high absorption coefficient in the visible region (>104 cm −1 ), and high minority carrier diffusion length (10-100 nm) which make it a promising material for use in spintronics, thin film transistors and nano-electronics [12]. Among others, Cu 2 O is considered as parent compound of all the Cu-based semiconducting materials such as LnCuOCh (Ch = chalcogenite, Ln = lanthanide,), CuMO 2 delafossite (with M = Al, Ga, In, Cr, B) and SrCu 2 O 2 (alloying with an alkaline-earth oxide, SrO).…”