IJCPS Vol. 7, No. 3 , May-Jun 2018 ISSN:2319-6602 www.ijcps.org International Journal of Chemical and Physical Sciences Synthesis and Structural Investigations of Cu, Mn doped Cd1-xZnxS Quantum Dots INDU YADAV a , DHARAMVIR SINGH AHLAWAT a *, RACHNA AHLAWAT a - 1 - Synthesis and Structural Investigations of Cu, Mn doped Cd 1-x Zn x S Quantum Dots INDU YADAV a , DHARAMVIR SINGH AHLAWAT a *, RACHNA AHLAWAT a a .Department of Physics, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa-125055 (Hry.), India *Corresponding Author E-Mail: dahlawat66@gmail.com Received: 12.03.2018 Accepted: 23.04.2018 Published Online 15.06.2018 https://doi.org/10.30731/ijcps.7.3.2018.1-9 _____________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract A desirable quality of copper and manganese codoped Cd 1-x Zn x S (x≤1) quantum dots have been synthesized successfully using chemical co-precipitation method at room temperature. Structural investigations of the synthesized samples were carried out by powder XRD, TEM FTIR and AFM techniques. Further, the XRD results confirm that Cu and Mn codoped Cd 1-x Zn x S nanocrystallites exhibit wurtzite structure. Lattice strain and average nanocrystallite size in the range 2-4 nm have been determined. The FTIR analysis identifies absorption peaks of Cd-S/Zn-S stretching modes along with presence of some moisture content in the synthesized samples. The TEM analysis further confirms polycrystalline nature of Cu, Mn doped Cd 1-x Zn x S (x≤1) nanocrstallites by SAED pattern and corresponding histograms give the particle size distribution. Keywords: Co-precipitation; Cd 1-x Zn x S:(Cu,Mn) nanocrystallites; XRD; FTIR; TEM; AFM. ______________________________________________________________________________ Introduction Band structures, electronic and optical properties of semiconductors which are based on Cd, Zn and Hg in combination with sulphur, selenium and tellurium have been reported by many investigators by theoretical methods. 1 In this direction, synthesis of ternary metal chalcogenides of group II-VI semiconductors in nanocrystalline form has become a rapidly growing area of research due to their important luminescent properties, quantum confinement effects and other important physical and chemical properties. 2 From the last decade, the wide band gap nanocrystalline materials like CdS, ZnS, CdSe, ZnSe have been investigated by many researchers 3-5 but research work on their doped ternary alloy nanostructures is found still in a limited way. Although, the band gap of binary semiconducting materials can be tuned by changing the particle size while in the case of ternary semiconducting materials it can also be tuned by changing the percentage of composition of its constituents. 4 In these materials like cadmium chalcogenides, it is possible to engineer the band gap over a wide range depending upon the concentration of Cd and Zn in the CdZnS system that opens a new avenue for tremendous potential applications in diverse areas like solar cells, photo-catalysis, sensors, photonic, and other optoelectronic devices. 5,6 Recently, cadmium zinc sulfide (CdZnS) ternary compounds are being widely used as wide band gap window materials in heterojunction solar cells and photoconductive devices. Interestingly, in solar cell systems, CdS films have been demonstrated to effectively replace by the higher band gap ternary material such as a CdZnS compound that leads to a decrease in window absorption loss. Eventually, an increase in the short-circuit current in the solar cell has been reported. 7 Thus CdZnS