Optoelectronic and magnetic properties of Mn-doped and Mn–C co-doped Wurtzite ZnS: a first-principles study

Abstract

In order to meet the requirement of spintronic and optoelectronic, we have systematically investigated the effect of Mn doping and co-doping of Mn with C on the electronic, magnetic and optical properties of wurtzite zinc sulfide (ZnS) using first principle calculations. Our results find that single Mn doping alters the non-magnetic ZnS to a magnetic one and keeps its semiconducting and a semiconductor to half-metal transition is observed for Mn–C co-doping. Furthermore, an antiferromagnetic (AFM) and ferromagnetic (FM) ground states are favorable for Mn-doped and Mn–C co-doped system, respectively. Additionally, the optical properties of our studied configuration have been calculated in terms of real and imaginary parts of the complex dielectric function, absorption coefficient, and reflectivity. The absorption edge shifts slightly toward lower energy and intensity of the main peak become weak for single Mn doping, and a sharp peak at low energy is observed for the Mn–C co-doping. The analysis of optical absorption of Mn ions doped system shows the blue- and red-shifts of the d-d transition in the AFM and FM coupled of Mn ions doped configuration, respectively which is in good agreement with the experimental observations. The improved magnetic and optical properties of Mn–C co-doped ZnS shed light on the future application of such kind of materials in spintronic and optoelectronic devices such as remote sensing and photovoltaics.