Preparation of nanocrystalline Mg doped CdSe thin films and their optical, photoluminescence, electrical and structural characterization

Phosphors used are mostly rare earth doped complex structures. A simple and unique material system of CdSe:Mg nanocrystalline thin films, which efficiently absorb UV (235 nm) and emit broad spectrum of green-yellow region has been prepared by chemical bath deposition method with average particle size of 52.3 nm, measured using AFM images. The optical absorption studies found that CdSe thin film has direct optical band gap, \({E_g}\) of 2.62 eV that shows a blue shift of 0.88 eV compared to the bulk \({E_g}\) value. Optical, electrical, structural and morphological properties were studied by UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer, photoluminescence (PL) emission spectra, dc two-probe method, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and atomic force microscope (AFM). Measured electrical resistivity decreased with increase of doping concentration. Activation energy was also calculated. The results confirm that the CdSe:Mg thin films are in the pure cubic phase. The magnesium concentrations also affect the nanocrystalline nature of the CdSe thin films. The optical band gap and surface roughness of CdSe thin films mostly decrease with 5% doping of Mg. The effect of Mg doping on refractive index, extinction coefficient and other optical parameters was also investigated.