Structural and nonlinear optical characterizations of ZnS/PVP nanocomposites synthesized by pulsed laser ablation

ZnS/Poly Vinyl Pyrrolidone nanocomposites were synthesized by pulsed laser ablation at ambient conditions using an Nd: YAG laser at 532 nm wavelength and 7ns pulse width. Linear optical characterizations were done using UV-Vis spectrophotometer and fluorometer. Both absorption and emission peaks were found to be blue shifted, which could be due to quantum confinement effect. Spherical morphology and the purity in the elemental composition of the sample were confirmed by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer respectively. Average particle size of the ZnS nanoparticles was found to be 13.45 nm from the Gaussian fitted histogram of transmission electron Microscopy image and the structure was confirmed as hexagonal wurtzite by X-ray diffraction analysis. The nonlinear optical parameters were figured out by z scan analysis with the same laser system. The nanocomposite showed good absorptive and refractive properties in the nonlinear optical regime. Detailed study of the nanocomposite revealed its potential applications in optoelectronics and nonlinear optical device fabrication. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.