Studies on Structural and Optical Properties of Lanthanide Sm Eu and Gd Doped ZnO Nanoparticles Synthesized By Soft Solution Route

Abstract

Abstract newlineSemiconductor nanomaterials are considered to be novel functional materials and possess interesting structural, optical, electrical and magnetic properties which find applications in next generation optoelectronic and spintronic devices. Wide band gap semiconductors like ZnO, SnO2 and GaN are extensively studied and drawn considerable attention of research community owing to their technological importance and versatility. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is widely studied due to its excellent properties and novel applications in varistors, enamel coatings, sunscreen, cements, tires, food packing, glue, reagents, photocopy paper, flame retardant, fungicides, medicine, cosmetics and dental cements. Significant improvement in the structural and optical properties of zinc oxide can be achieved when its size changes to nanoscale. Diverse morphologies of ZnO nanostructures can be synthesized which are useful in preparing highly desirable products with suitable applications in different emerging fields such as; solar cell, battery, gas sensor, photodetectors, piezotronic devices and light emitting diodes. Zinc oxide has the richest morphology and enthralling properties like large exciton binding energy (60 meV), wide band gap (3.37 eV), outstanding chemical and thermal stabilities, good transparency, higher values of electron mobility and thermal conductivity. The incorporation of suitable and selective dopants substantially alters the above properties of ZnO with its size changing to nanometer regime. Doping results in the modification of electronic band gap of ZnO by the creation of quasi-stable energy states. Presently, intense research has been carried out in the above area and doping of elements especially from the rare earth family into ZnO has resulted multidimensional properties like photoluminescence (PL), antibacterial activity and photocatalysis. Nano ZnO shows a sharp PL emission band in ultraviolet (UV) region and a broad PL emission band in the visible region. The emissions in the visible spectrum of light appear