  Transparent conductors-nearly an oxymoron-are in pressing demand, as
ultra-thin-film technologies become ubiquitous commodities. As current
solutions rely on non-abundant elements, perovskites such as SrVO3 and SrNbO3
have been suggested as next generation transparent conductors. Our ab-initio
calculations and analytical insights show, however, that reducing the plasma
frequency below the visible spectrum by strong electronic correlations-a
recently proposed strategy-unavoidably comes at a price: an enhanced scattering
and thus a substantial optical absorption above the plasma edge. As a way out
of this dilemma we identify several perovskite transparent conductors, relying
on hole doping, somewhat larger bandwidths and separations to other bands.

Materials Science;Strongly Correlated Electrons