The influence of La/Mg co-doping on the structure, linear and nonlinear optical properties of Fe2O3 nanoparticles for environmentally friendly applications

Abstract

The structure and linear/nonlinear optical properties of iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) films are examined for environmentally friendly applications. Undoped and La, Mg and La/Mg co-doped Fe2O3 NPs films were equipped using the spray pyrolysis procedure. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the films were characterized by X-ray diffractometer, FT-IR spectrophotometer, FE-SEM and UV–visible–NIR spectrophotometer. XRD analysis exposes that the samples possess a rhombohedral structure of α- Fe2O3 (hematite). Besides, the crystallite size of the undoped Fe2O3 NPs increases from 20.7 nm to 21.8 nm (La/Fe2O3), 23.0 nm (Mg/Fe2O3) and 24.4 nm (La + Mg/Fe2O3). The direct/indirect optical band gap of the undoped Fe2O3 film decreases from 2.47 eV/1.87 eV to 2.43 eV/1.72 eV (La/Fe2O3), 2.37 eV/1.65 eV (Mg/Fe2O3) and 2.31 eV/1.56 eV (La + Mg/Fe2O3). Moreover, the effect of La/Mg co-doping on the refractive index, extinction coefficient, dielectric constants, linear optical susceptibility (χ(1)), third-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(3)) and nonlinear refractive index (n2) of Fe2O3 NPs have been explored. In instance, the real dielectric constant of the undoped Fe2O3 NPs decreases at 600 nm from 6.46 to 5.00 (La/Fe2O3), 3.80 (Mg/Fe2O3) and 3.17 (La + Mg/Fe2O3). The ability to tailor the linear/nonlinear optical properties of Fe2O3 NPs films upon La/Mg co-doping nominate them for uses in a lot of environmentally friendly applications.