Structure, microstructure and physical properties of ZnO based materials in various forms: bulk, thin film and nano

Abstract

ZnO is a unique material that offers about a dozen different application possibilities. In spite of the fact that the ZnO lattice is amenable to metal ion doping (3d and 4f), the physics of doping in ZnO is not completely understood. This paper presents a review of previous research works on ZnO and also highlights results of our research activities on ZnO. The review pertains to the work on Al and Mg doping for conductivity and band gap tuning in ZnO followed by a report on transition metal (TM) ion doped ZnO. This review also highlights the work on the transport and optical studies of TM ion doped ZnO, nanostructured growth (ZnO polycrystalline and thin films) by different methods and the formation of unique nano- and microstructures obtained by pulsed laser deposition and chemical methods. This is followed by results on ZnO encapsulated Fe3O4 nanoparticles that show promising trends suitable for various applications. We have also reviewed the non-linear characteristic studies of ZnO based heterostructures followed by an analysis on the work carried out on ZnO based phosphors, which include mainly the nanocrystalline ZnO encapsulated SiO2, a new class of phosphor that is suitable for white light emission.

Temperature dependence of the local structure and lattice dynamics of wurtzite-type ZnO

“…Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a wide band-gap (E g = 3.37 eV [1]) semiconductor, which has many promising technological applications [2,3,4,5] and, therefore, is an extremely popular research field during the last years [6,7,8].…”

Growth, Structural and Optical Characterization of ZnO Nanotubes on Disposable-Flexible Paper Substrates by Low-Temperature Chemical Method

“…ZnO possesses diverse hierarchical nanostructures such as nanorods (NRs), nanowires (NWs), nanobelts (NBs), and nanotubes (NTs), and all these nanostructures can be synthesized under specific growth conditions on different substrates. These one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures provided valuable information regarding the crystal growth mechanisms on the nanometer scale and exhibited high potential for fabricating novel nanodevices with superior performance [2]. Since the last few years 1D ZnO nanostructures have attracted considerable interest because these nanostructures exhibited extraordinary structural, surface, electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical, and thermal properties different from those found in bulk ZnO material.…”

Influence of Pr Doping on the Structural, Morphological, Optical, Luminescent and Non-linear Optical Properties of RF-Sputtered ZnO Films

“…ZnO is a good host for incorporating rare earth elements and easily produces intrinsic defects such as interstitial zinc and oxygen vacancy. The large exciton binding energy (60 meV at room temperature) [11,12,13] and wide direct band gap energy (3.37 eV) of ZnO [14,15] leads to efficient energy transfer from exciton to rare earth ion [16]. Therefore the optical properties of rare earth doped ZnO nanostructures are expected to be modified remarkably.…”