Enhanced red emission from Fe/Si co-doped ZnO nano-particles

Abstract

Structural, optical, and photoluminescence properties of Zn0.95Si0.05 − xFexO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.05) nano-crystallites prepared by sol-gel process has been investigated thoroughly revealing enhanced red emission in co-doped samples originating from oxygen interstitials. Greater ionic charge and smaller size of the substituent ions helps generate more interstitials forming defect states within the bandgap. The correlation between oxygen interstitials, i.e. defect states corresponding to the doping concentrations of Si and Fe ions and the enhanced red emissions from the samples has been established unequivocally following a quantitative approach by analyzing the photoluminescence spectra contributed from the individual defect levels. © 2017 Acta Materialia Inc.