Synthesis and optical properties of cerium doped zinc sulfide nano particles

Abstract We report the synthesis of various concentrations of cerium-doped (1–4 mol%) and undoped zinc sulfide nanoparticles by co-precipitation technique at ambient condition. Powder X-ray diffraction pattern reveals both undoped and cerium doped ZnS nanoparticles are in cubic structure with slight variation in the lattice parameter due to the influence of Ce3+ ions. The average grain size of the synthesized nanoparticles was calculated to be ∼4 nm. Further the particle size, crystallinity and composition of Ce:ZnS nanoparticles were confirmed by TEM, SAED pattern and EDAX. The optical properties of the Ce:ZnS nanoparticles were characterized using UV–vis absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy. For both undoped and doped samples, UV–vis spectra show blue shift in absorption edge as compared to bulk ZnS. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the Ce3+:ZnS nanoparticles exhibits strong and stable visible-light emissions for an excitation wavelength of 290 nm. It was observed, the PL spectra of undoped sample exhibits a blue light emission peak at 427 nm and the doped sample exhibit a green emission peak at 534 nm from the 5d–4f transition along with the blue emission peak.