Band Gap Reduction and Petal-like Nanostructure Formation in Heavily Ce-doped ZnO Nanopowders

Authors Kamakhya Prakash Misra1, Ashok Kumawat1, Priyanka Kumari2, Susruta Samanta2, Nilanjan Halder1, Saikat Chattopadhyay1
Affiliations

1Department of Physics, School of Basic Sciences, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan 303007, India

2Department of Chemistry, School of Basic Sciences, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, Rajasthan 303007, India

Е-mail the_saikat@yahoo.com
Issue Volume 13, Year 2021, Number 2
Dates Received 10 January 2021; revised manuscript received 24 March 2021; published online 09 April 2021
Citation Kamakhya Prakash Misra, Ashok Kumawat, Priyanka Kumari, и др., J. Nano- Electron. Phys. 13 No 2, 02008 (2021)
DOI https://doi.org/10.21272/jnep.13(2).02008
PACS Number(s) 61.46. + w, 77.55.hf, 78.30.Fs
Keywords ZnO (88) , Rare earth material, Doping (20) , Nanoparticles (70) , Band gap (29) , Photoluminescence (17) .
Annotation

The objective of the present study is to explore the structural and optical behavior of a heavily Ce-doped ZnO nanoparticle system. Well-known chemical sol-gel method is adopted for the synthesis of the nanoparticles and its structural, optical, and morphological features are characterized. XRD and EDX analysis verify the presence of Ce atom in prepared sample. XRD data confirm that the Ce3+ ions occupy the Zn2+ ion sites in the hexagonal ZnO lattice during doping process. Due to higher doping concentration, excess Ce shows the presence of mixed CeO2 and Ce2O3 phases in the sample. W-H analysis helps to understand the micro-strain profile in the grown sample. UV-Vis study confirms the band gap shifting in doped samples and Photoluminescence study gives the indication of the presence of defect states which are the reason behind NBE transitions in the samples. Prepared sample were also characterized using FESEM to analyze the surface morphology and nanocrystalline structures.

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