Study of Er-doped ZnS quantum dots synthesized by chemical capping method

Pure and doped zinc sulfide (ZnS) quantum dots have attracted increasing interest from researchers working on various scientific and engineering applications in electronics, nonlinear optical devices for communication, and optical computers. In this study, ZnS nanoparticles doped with erbium (ZnS:Er) with approximately 2 nm size was produced at room temperature by aqueous chemical capping. In this study, the UV-visible absorption spectra of ZnS;Er showed a red shift in the absorption shoulder compared with the spectra of undoped samples. ZnS nanoparticles could be doped with erbium ions during synthesis without altering the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of ZnS. Also, the XRD pattern of the powders showed cubic crystal structure for ZnS:Er. The photoluminescence spectroscopy of ZnS:Er showed that ZnS:Er exhibits a red shift in emission spectra compared with undoped ZnS nanoparticles.