Structural and optical properties of transparent conducting oxide Cd1-xCrxO thin films prepared by the sol-gel dip-coating method

•Cr-doped CdO thin films with different percent (0, 5, 10, 20 and 30%) have been prepared by the sol-gel method on glass substrates.•The crystal structures of prepared films were polycrystalline in nature which characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern.•The domain formed by aggregation of the nano-crystallites was characterized by the field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM).•Optical band gap Eg increased with increasing Cr ratio from 2.49 to 2.82 eV, and Urbach energy EU decreases with increasing Cr ratio.•Electrical resistivity for undoped CdO and Cr-doped CdO films was measured at room temperature and in the temperature range (300–450 K).