Effect of Mn Dopant on Lattice Parameters and Band Gap Energy of Semiconductor ZnO Nanoparticles

Abstract:

ZnO belongs to the II-VI semiconductor group with a direct band-gap of 3.2-3.37 eV in 300K and a high exciton binding energy of 60 meV. It has good transparency, high electron mobility, wide, and strong room-temperature luminescence. These properties have many applications in a wide area of emerging applications. Doping ZnO with the transition metals gives it magnetic property at room temperature hence making it multifunctional material, i.e. coexistence of magnetic, semiconducting and optical properties. The samples can be synthesized in the bulk, thin film, and nanoforms which show a wide range of ferromagnetism properties. Ferromagnetic semiconductors are important materials for spintronic and nonvolatile memory storage applications. Doping of transition metal elements into ZnO offers a feasible means of tailoring the band gap to use it as light emitters and UV detector. As there are controversial on the energy gap value due to change of lattice parameters we have synthesized Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles by co-precipitation method with different concentrations to study the effect of lattice parameters changes on gap energy. The doped samples were studied by XRD, SEM, FT-IR., and UV-Vis. The XRD patterns confirm doping of Mn into ZnO structure. As Mn concentrations increases the peak due to of Mn impurity in FT-IR spectra becomes more pronounces hence confirming concentrations variation. We find from UV-Vis spectra that the gap energy due to doping concentration increases due to the Goldschmidt-Pauling rule this increase depends on dopant concentrations and increases as impurity amount increases.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 829)
• Pages: 784-789
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.829.784
• Online since: November 2013
• Authors: Mahmoud Zolfaghari*, Mahshid Chireh
• Keywords: Bandgap Energy, Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor, Lattice Parameter, Mn, ZNO

References

[1] Xian-Yang Feng, Zhe Wang, Chang-Wen Zhang, and Pei-Ji Wang, Electronic Structure and Energy Band of IIIA Doped Group ZnO Nanosheets, Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Nanomaterials Volume 2013, Article ID 181979, 6 pages.

DOI: 10.1155/2013/181979

[2] S. A. Wolf, D. D. Awschalom, R. A. Buhrman, J. M. Daughton, S. von Molnár, M. L. Roukes, A. Y. Chtchelkanova, and D. M. Treger, A Spin-Based Electronics Vision for the Future, Science 294 (2001) 1488-1495.

DOI: 10.1126/science.1065389

[3] Y. Ohno, D. K. Young, B. Beschoten, F. Matsukura, H. Ohno, and D. D. Awschalom, Electrical spin injection in a ferromagnetic semiconductor heterostructure, Nature 402 (1999) 790-792.

DOI: 10.1038/45509

[4] Dana A. Schwartz, Kevin R. Kittilstved, and Daniel R. Gamelina, Above-room-temperature ferromagnetic Ni2+-doped ZnO thin films prepared from colloidal diluted magnetic semiconductor quantum dots, Appl. Phys. Lett. 85 (2004) 1395- 1397.

DOI: 10.1063/1.1785872

[5] J. K. Furdyna and J. Kossut, in Semiconductors and Semimetals, edited by J. K. Furdyna and J. Kossut (Academic, New York, 1988).

[6] K. Sato and H. Katayama-Yoshida, Electronic structure and ferromagnetism of transition-metal-impurity-doped zinc oxide, Physica B 308 (2001) 904-907.

DOI: 10.1016/s0921-4526(01)00834-1

[7] K. Ueda, H. Tabata, and T. Kawai, Magnetic and electric properties of transition-metal-doped ZnO films Appl. Phys. Lett. 79 (2001) 988-990.

DOI: 10.1063/1.1384478

[8] Y. M. Cho, W. K. Choo, H. Kim, D. Kim, and Y. Ihm, Effects of rapid thermal annealing on the ferromagnetic properties of sputtered Zn1−x(Co0. 5Fe0. 5)xO thin films, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 3358, (2002) 3358 (3 pages).

DOI: 10.1063/1.1478146

[9] P. Sharma, A. Gupta, K. V. Rao, F. J. Owens, R. Sharma, R. Ahuja, J. M. O. Guillen, B. Johansson, and G. A. Gehring, Ferromagnetism above room temperature in bulk and transparent thin films of Mn-doped ZnO, Nat. Mater 2 (2003) 673-677.

DOI: 10.1038/nmat984

[10] N. S. Norberg, K. R. Kittilstved, J. E. Amonette, R. K. Kukkadapu, D. A. Schwartz, and D. R. Gamelin, Synthesis of Colloidal Mn2+: ZnO Quantum Dots and High-TC Ferromagnetic Nanocrystalline Thin Films, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126 (2004) 9387–9398.

DOI: 10.1002/chin.200442011

[11] K. Sharda, Jayanthi, Santa Chawla, Synthesis of Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles with biocompatible capping, Appl. Surf. Sci, 256 (2010) 2630–2635.

DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2009.11.008

[12] V. D. Mote1, Y. Purushotham, and B. N. Dole1, Structural and morphological studies on Mn substituted ZnO nanometer-sized crystals, Cryst. Res. Technol. 46 (2011) 705-710.

DOI: 10.1002/crat.201100107

[13] Yao-Ming Hao, Shi-Yun Lou, Shao-Min Zhou, Rui-Jian Yuan, Gong-Yu Zhu and Ning Li, Structural, optical, and magnetic studies of manganese-doped zinc oxide hierarchical microspheres by self-assembly of nanoparticles, doi: 10. 1186/1556-276X-7-100, Nanoscale Research Letters, (2012).

DOI: 10.1186/1556-276x-7-100

[14] M. Ebrahimizadeh Abrishami, A. Kompany, S. M. Hosseini, N. Ghajari Bardar, Preparing undoped and Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles: a comparison between sol–gel and gel-combustion methods, J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 62 ( 2012) 153–159.

DOI: 10.1007/s10971-012-2701-2

[15] S. J. Parikh, J. Chorover, FTIR Spectroscopic Study of Biogenic Mn-Oxide Formation by Pseudomonas putida GB-1, Geomicrobiol J. 22 (2005) 207-218.

DOI: 10.1080/01490450590947724

[16] R. Ullah, J. Dutta, Photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes with manganese-doped ZnO nanoparticles, Journal of Hazardous Materials 156 (2008) 194-200.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2007.12.033

[17] J. W. Li, L. W. Yang, Z. F. Zhou, Paul K. Chu, X. H. Wang, J. Zhou, L. T. Li, and Chang Q. Sun, Bandgap Modulation in ZnO by Size, Pressure, and Temperature, J. Phys. Chem. C 114 (2010) 13370–13374.

DOI: 10.1021/jp104204y

[18] X. J. Liu, Z. F. Zhou, L. W. Yang, J. W. Li, G. F. Xie, S. Y. Fu, and C. Q. Sun, Correlation and size dependence of the lattice strain, binding energy, elastic modulus, and thermal stability for Au and Ag nanostructures, J. Appl. Phys., 109 (2011).

DOI: 10.1063/1.3569743