Optical and magnetic properties of Nd‐doped ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract

Nd‐doped ZnO nanoparticles with different concentration were synthesized by sol‐gel method. The structures, magnetic and optical properties of as‐synthesized nanorods were investigated. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results demonstrated that Nd ions were incorporated into ZnO lattice; but Zn1‐xNdxO nanoparticles with Nd concentration of x = 0.05 showed Nd2O3 phase, so the saturation concentration of Nd in Zn1‐xNdxO is less than 5 at%. Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements indicated that Nd doped ZnO possessed dilute ferromagnetis behaviour at room temperature. Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) showed that Nd ions doping induced a red slight shift and decrease in UV emission with increase of Nd concentration.

Investigation of the structural, optical and electrical properties of Nd-doped ZnO thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis

“…A newer LUMO is therefore formed which leads to a reduction of the band gap. Note that such decrease in the gap is in agreement with the red shift of the excitonic peak observed in photoluminescence measurements for Nd-doped ZnO [23,35] and in other transition metal doped ZnO films grown by spray and other techniques [12,[36][37][38].…”

“…For larger Nd concentrations, the resistivity decreases again and the n-type character is reinforced (increase of the carrier concentration). This suggests that further doping does not lead to an increase of Nd ions in substitution of the Zn ions, but to the appearance of new defects (not necessarily optically active) and to spurious phases (such as Nd 2 O 3 which was reported in highly doped ZnO samples [35] that increase further the n-type conduction. These results are in agreement with both XRD and photoluminescence results.…”

“…This is probably due to increase of Nd defects in the ZnO upon doping. According to Zheng et al [35] Nd 4f electrons…”

Enhancement in UV emission and band gap by Fe doping in ZnO thin films

“…Nd (a lan− thanide) doped ZnO leads to a band gap narrowing although the dopant is in +3 state. Douyar et al [12] has reported that according to Zheng et al [32] Nd 4f electrons introduce new states close to the conduction band of ZnO. A newer LUMO is therefore formed which leads to a reduction of the band gap [12].…”

Structural, optical and antibacterial activity studies of neodymium doped ZnO nanoparticles

“…Several methods for the synthesis of ZnO are reported in the literature, such as co-precipitation, ultrasonic radiation using precipitation, microwave irradiation, mechanical ball milling, solution combustion and microwave assisted solvothermal methods [12][13][14][15]. Among these methods, coprecipitation method attracts more attention due to its unique advantages including low cost, simple lab equipment, easy adjustment of dopant concentration and ability to produce large amount of nanoparticles (NPs) etc., In the present paper, a simple co-precipitation method was applied for the preparation of Nd doped ZnO NPs.…”