ZnO nanostructures have attracted great attention for possible applications in optoelectronic and spintronic devices. The electrical resistivity because of carriers can be improved by the introduction of Li ions, as Li is a possible dopant for achieving p-type ZnO. We have carried out a comprehensive micro-Raman scattering study of the phonons in 1% Li-and undoped ZnO needle crystals grown and annealed at 1073 K for 1 and 2 h under oxygen environment. Phonon mode of doped and undoped ZnO does not show any measurable shift for the doping concentration of 1%. As line width is related to point defect density, we find for both Li-and undoped ZnO crystals the crystallinity is improving towards the tip of the needle crystals.

Devices with ITO/ZnO/ZnS/CFTS/Au, ITO/ZnO/ZnS/CCTS/Au and ITO/ZnO/ZnS/CNTS/Au architectures exhibited PCE values of 2.73, 3.23 and 2.71% and displayed good electrocatalytic behaviors.

We propose Mg doping in zinc oxide (ZnO) films for realizing wider optical bandgap in highly c-axis oriented Zn1−xMgxO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3) thin films. A remarkable enhancement of 25% in the bandgap by 30% Mg doping was achieved. The bandgap was tuned between 3.25 eV (ZnO) and 4.06 eV (Zn0.7Mg0.3O), which was further confirmed by density functional theory based wien2k simulation employing a combined generalized gradient approximation with scissor corrections. The change of stress and crystallite size in these films were found to be the causes for the observed blueshift in the bandgap.

A new family of quaternary semiconductors Cu2ZnAS4-x and CuZn2AS4 (A = Al, Ga, In) has been synthesized in the form of wurtzite phase nanocrystals for the first time. The nanocrystals can be converted to the stannite phase via thermal annealing under a N2 atmosphere. A direct band gap in the visible wavelength region combined with a high absorption cross-section makes these materials promising for solar energy conversion applications.