Abstract
The present research performed thermal decomposition to synthesize pure zinc oxide (ZnO) and cadmium-doped ZnO (ZnO:Cd) nanorods with ZnO-to-Cd weight ratios of 93:7, 95:5, and 97:3. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were performed, and current/voltage and current/time were measured to determine the optical, structural, and morphological characteristics of ZnO and ZnO:Cd. The XRD results suggested the hexagonal wurtzite structure of all the samples and the successful incorporation of Cd into the ZnO structures. This incorporation caused a spherical to rod-like change in the shape of the nanostructures. An intense and sharp peak was observed at 380 nm (3.26 eV) in the UV region of the PL spectra of all the samples. A UV photodetector fabricated on the basis of ZnO and ZnO:Cd nanorods with a metal–semiconductor–metal configuration showed the significant photocurrent and photosensitivity of the ZnO:Cd samples in the UV photodetection application. The sensitivity of the fabricated ZnO photodetectors with Cd percentages of 0, 3, 5, and 7% was, respectively, obtained as 110.62, 463.28, 762.40, and 920.30. The fastest photoresponse, with the rise and decay times of 2.5 and 4 s, respectively, was associated with the sample doped with 5% Cd.
Highlights
The military and civil applications of the ultraviolet (UV) technology include chemical and biological research, optical communication and measuring UV radiation and radiation from artificial sources [1]
The present findings suggested the high sensitivity of one-dimensional zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures to UV radiation and changes in their conductivity
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra obtained at various Cd concentrations in figure 2 to explore the structural characteristics of the ZnO and ZnO:Cd powder showed the peaks at (100), (002), (101), (102), (110), (103), (200), (112) and (201) for all the samples to correspond to that of the ZnO reference card (0704-076-01)
Summary
The military and civil applications of the ultraviolet (UV) technology include chemical and biological research, optical communication and measuring UV radiation and radiation from artificial sources [1]. Research suggests doping transition metals, including cadmium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and iron, into the ZnO lattic can enhance the electrical, magnetic and optical features of UV photodetectors based on ZnO nanostructures [12, 13]. The simplicity of thermal decomposition and its high speed of producing pure cost-effective crystalline ZnO nanostructures using a single chemical agent and without employing a catalyst have turned this method into the most popular technique for producing ZnO [27]. Given these excellent properties, the present experiments were conducted to synthesize ZnO nanostructures using thermal decomposition. The results of investigating the optical, structural, electrical and morphological features of the samples were presented
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