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Characterization of Pure and Doped ZnO Nanoclusters


EMSL Project ID
12699

Abstract

ZnO is a wide-band gap semiconductor (3.3 eV) that has attracted tremendous interest as blue light emitting spintronic material. ZnO particles when doped with transition metals can develop properties like ferromagnetism in addition to the optical and electrical properties. We prepare pure ZnO and doped ZnO nanoparticles by a technique that is a combination of sputtering and aggregation and study their optic, magnetic and electric properties. Ultraviolet-photoluminescence (UV-PL) measurements done on pure ZnO nanocluster samples, showed a blue shift of the PL energy in comparison with bulk samples. Ferromagnetism and UV-PL are both observed at room temperature for 2% Co-doped ZnO nanocluster films, made out of nanoclusters as building blocks. We plan to further investigate the samples by varying the experimental parameters. We also plan to do ferromagnetic studies on the ZnO doped with transition metals like Fe, Co, Ni, Mn, Ti, Vn etc. For characterization of the samples, we would like to make use of the facilities at PNNL like XRD, XPS, AFM, TEM and Accelerator measurements.

Reference:
J. Antony, S. Pendyala, A. Sharma, X. B. Chen, J. Morrison, L. Bergman, Y. Qiang, Room Temperature Ferromagnetic and UV Optical Properties of Co-Doped ZnO Nanocluster Films, accepted by Journal of applied physics

Project Details

Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2005-02-28
End Date
2007-01-13
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

JiJi Antony
Institution
University of Idaho

Team Members

You Qiang
Institution
University of Idaho

Zheming Wang
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Related Publications

Antony J, and Y Qiang. 2007. "Cathodoluminescence from a device of carbon nanotube-field emission display with ZnO nanocluster phosphor." Nanotechnology 18(29):295703. doi:10.1088/0957-4484/18/29/295703
Antony J, J Nutting, DR Baer, D Meyer, AM Sharma, and Y Qiang. 2006. "Size dependent specific surface area of nanoporous film assembled by core-shell iron nanoclusters." Journal of Nanomaterials 2006(Special Issue 2):Art. No. 54961. doi:10.1155/JNM/2006/54961
Antony J, XB Chen, J Morrison, L Bergman, Y Qiang, DE McCready, and MH Engelhard. 2005. "ZnO nanoclusters: Synthesis and photoluminescence." Applied Physics Letters 87:241917.
Antony J, Y Qiang, F Muhammad, D Meyer, DE McCready, and MH Engelhard. 2007. "Ferromagnetic Semiconductor Nanoclusters: Co-doped Cu2O." Applied Physics Letters 90(1):art. no. 013106 (3 pages). doi:10.1063/1.2429018
Y.F. Tian, J. Antony, R. Souza, S.S. Yan, L.M. Mei and Y. Qiang, “Giant positive magnetoresistance in Co-doped ZnO nanocluster films”, Appl. Phys. Letters, 92, (2008) 192109