Study of structural, electronic, and conducting properties of Cu2−xMnxO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.07) system

Abstract

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is an attractive material for a number of device and industrial applications. In this study, solvothermal method has been employed to synthesize Cu2−xMnxO (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.07) nanoparticles, and the effect of Mn concentration on structural, electronic, and conducting properties has been discussed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) data confirmed that all samples crystallized in cubic structure without any impurity phases. X-rays photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) also confirmed the incorporation of Mn in Cu2O lattice as Mn+2 in doped samples. Moreover, the presence of Cu+2 in the XPS spectra suggests that CuO is present at the surface region in the form of an amorphous thin layer on the Cu2O since it was not observed in XRD spectra. Multiple electronic transitions including those related to the presence of Mn were observed in Photoluminescence (PL) data consistent with the literature. Linear trend in the I-V characteristics was observed in both pure and doped samples due to the ohmic nature of the contact with the Ag electrode. The observed increase in conductivity with Mn content may be related to electron hopping conduction and large surface area (particle sizes ~ 11–15 nm) of the doped samples. The obtained results suggest that Mn has great potential to improve the electronic and conducting properties of Cu2O making it promising material for photocatalytic, solar energy and optoelectronic applications.