A cadmium oxide (CdO) film doped with any of the Group III elements is substantially transparent to radiation between about 0.7 .mu.m and 12 .mu.m. A film made according to the invention having a sheet resistance of <600.OMEGA./.quadrature. will also have exceptionally low optical absorption throughout the IR range. The film is suitably employed as transparent, electrically conductive electrodes, and can be used in devices such as liquid crystal cells for beam steering, spatial light modulators, optical switches for fiber optical communications, switchable and/or tunable polarization modification components, and top transparent electrodes for SWIR (1.3 and 1.5 .mu.m) VCSELs.