Quantum confinement effects on the structural and optical properties of nanostructured tin oxide powder

Nanostructured Tin oxide powders, prepared by chemical precipitation method, exhibitinteresting structural and optical properties at nanoscale dimensions. Structural charac-terization confirmed the formation of pure nanostructured SnO(2)powders with averagecrystalline grain size of 54.4 nm calculated with relative uncertainty of 1.62%. The opticalproperties of nanoSnO(2)powder performed by using transmittance and photolumines-cence measurements reveal high transparency and multi-photon emissions in visible andultraviolet regions. The different photon emissions are attributed to radiative transitionsvia oxygen vacancies, Sn interstitials, Sn substitutional and dangling bonds. The lowerwavelength value corresponded to the absorption edge peak indicating the good quantumconfinement of nanostructured SnO(2)powder. The larger optical band gap, calculatedthrough transmittance measurements, confirms the quantum confinement effects. Thepresence of quantum confinement and native point defects in nanostructured SnO(2)pow-ders can contribute to enhancing photon emissions process. This result may offer inherentadvantages over conventional materials for photonic quantum information technology.The sustained photon emission at room temperature, indicates that SnO(2)nanoparticlescould be useful in room temperature quantum computing and can maintain the delicatequantum states required for computation at higher temperatures.