Suppression of defect level emissions in low temperature fabricated one-dimensional Mn doped ZnO nanorods

Abstract

One-dimensional Mn doped ZnO nanocrystallites were synthesized through a facile low temperature surfactant free chemical route. The crystallite structure and morphological evolution of the particles were revealed to be of wurtzite phase and rod like structures from the X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopic analysis, respectively. Using Raman spectroscopy the role of oxygen related defects and phase purity in the Mn substituted ZnO systems were studied systematically. A significant suppression in the sub-band edge emission was visualized in the room temperature emission spectra of the Mn doped systems. The intensity ratio in between the near-band edge and defect-level emissions was observed to increase, signifying the reduction in oxygen related defects and revealing their influence on the crystallinity on the Mn substituted ZnO species. These variations were correlated with the increasing number of Mn ions in the host lattice, which results with their passivating action on the surface defects.