Preparation and Characterization of Doped CdS and ZnS Nanostructures

Abstract

Owing to unique size dependent optical, electronic and magnetic properties, CdS and ZnS have gained considerable attention in various optoelectronic and spintronic applications. newlineAlso, their wide band gap in visible range makes them suitable for solar cell application. At nanoscale, these materials exhibit entirely different properties as compared to their bulk counterpart due to large surface to volume ratio and quantum-confinement effect. Further, the properties of these materials can be altered by tailoring the particle size and newlinesuitable cationic doping. Therefore, the main focus of this work is to understand the size effect and to systematically investigate transition metal (TM) (Fe3+, Co2+) and rare earth (RE) (Dy3+, Tb3+) doped CdS and ZnS nanostructures with an emphasis to their optical newlineand magnetic properties. The carried out work is organized into five chapters and the content of each chapter is given below. newlineChapter 1 (Introduction) newlineChapter 1 briefly introduces the semiconductors and the dilute magnetic semiconductors newline(DMS). The different theories of origin of magnetism in DMS are summarized. The important applications of DMS have been paragraphed. newlineChapter 2 (Literature review) newlineThe important work carried out on DMS, particularly CdS and ZnS nanostructures newline(nanoparticles/thin films) are reviewed with a focus to their structural, optical and newlinemagnetic properties. The detail description of the effect of various dopants (TM and RE) newlineand processing methods are discussed. The comparative study on optical and magnetic properties of CdS and ZnS nanoparticles/films by various researchers has been tabulated. The chapter is concluded with motivation and objectives of the present work. newlineChapter 3 (Experimental procedure and characterization techniques) newlineThe details of adopted processing method for synthesis of TM (Fe3+, Co2+) and RE (Tb3+, newlineDy3+) doped CdS and ZnS nanoparticles are provided. The deposition of CdS and ZnS thin film using chemical bath deposition method is also given. The various newlinech