The introduction of impurity atoms into semiconducting materials, better known as doping, is the primary method for controlling the properties of the semiconductor, such as its band gap.One such material is transition-metal doped zinc oxide (Zn_1-xM_xO). Although this system has been under experimental study for some time, the vast majority of research conducted on this material is done on bulk crystals or thin films. There are very few reports on the fabrication of one-dimensional nanostructures of Zn_1-xM_xO. While this approach has proven quite effective for the production of a multitude of nanoscale semiconductors, gas-phase syntheses have considerable limits on nanowire yield and reaction scalability.
We present the synthesis and characterization of cobalt- or manganese-doped zinc oxide (Zn_1-xCo_xO and Zn_1-xMn_xO) nanowires grown from a solution phase synthesis.¹ To our knowledge, this is the first reported synthesis of a one-dimensional DMS material produced in such a manner. We also note that our synthetic scheme allows for doping of different transition metals (e.g. Ni, Fe, Cu).
To determine the oxidation state of the cobalt in the wurtzite lattice, we employed electron-energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) combined with high resolution electron microscopy (HREM). The magnetic measurements are performed using SQUID and VSM magnetometer and EPR spectroscopy. Optical properties are studied on an ensemble and on single nanowire to enlighten the bandgap and dopant electronic transitions.

¹Yuhas BD, Zitoun D, Pauzauskie P, He R, Yang P Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 420

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