Structural and optical properties of Bi-and-Pr-doped ZnO

The effect of Bi substitution (up to 2 wt%) on the structural and optical properties of Pr0.01Zn0.97O materials synthesized by a modified sol-gel Pechini method has been investigated. The as-synthesized powders Pr0.01Zn0.97O and Pr0.01Bi0.01Zn0.97O are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-visDRS). The structure refinement of the sample was performed in the hexagonal and monoclinic setting of the (P6(3)mc) and (P2(1)/c) space group. The micro structural effects in terms of crystallite size and lattice strain of these materials were pointed using the Scherrer method, Williamson-Hall (W-H) analysis and size-strain plot (SSPM) method. We found that the incorporation of Bi ion in the Pr0.01Zn0.97O structure caused an increase in the size and the band gap energy of nanocrystals as compared to Pr0.01Zn0.97O. The interesting evolution of PL emission in the UV, visible and continuous deep level emission further, resulted by introducing Bi3+ in the nanocomposites, demonstrates the potential application of this material in optoelectronics devices.