Comparative Study of Bulk and Nanoengineered Doped ZnSe

Abstract

Chromium- and cobalt-doped zinc selenide nanoparticles were synthesized using a low-temperature reactive solution growth method. The morphological and optical characteristics were compared to those of doped zinc selenide (ZnSe) bulk crystals grown by the physical vapor transport (PVT) method. We observed agglomeration of particles; however, the thioglycerol capping agent has been shown to limit particle grain growth and agglomeration. This process enables doping by addition of chromium and cobalt salts in the solution. A slightly longer refluxing time was required to achieve cobalt doping as compared with chromium doping due to lower refluxing temperature. The nanoparticle growth process showed an average particle size of approximately 300 nm for both Cr- and Co-doped zinc selenide. The optical characterization of Co:ZnSe is ongoing; however, preliminary results showed a very high bandgap compared to that of pure ZnSe bulk crystal. Additionally, Co:ZnSe has an order of magnitude higher fluorescence intensity compared to bulk Cr:ZnSe samples.

Flux growth of optical sensor zinc selenide crystals

“…Since the size of crystallized materials depends on cooling rate, we tried several cooling rates by switching power of the hot plate. However only nano and micro-size particles were obtained (Figure 1b) by the water-based solution similar to that reported by Setera et al [9]. These particles were pressed, and pellets were prepared as shown in Figure .1c.…”

“…Several growth approach [8,9] have been experimented in addition to physical vapor transport growth to grow micro and nano crystals of ZnSe. Our approach was similar to that developed by Ravindranadth et al [10] and Deshpande et al [11] in which they used utilized zinc chloride solution and reacted with hydrogen on glass plates to produce ZnSe nanoparticles.…”