Abstract
Pristine and neodymium-doped (3, 6, and 9 wt.%) ZnO nanostructured thin films were deposited on glass substrates using the chemical bath technique. The changes in structural, topographical, photoluminescence, and UV detection properties have been studied. XRD studies confirmed the ZnO phase with a hexagonal structure with a strong prevalence of (002) peak. Nd-doping reduces the bandgap value of the grown material from 3.33 to 3.18 eV. The photoluminescence studies of grown nanowires exhibited the presence of luminescence centers at 387, 412, 438, 452, 477, and 525 nm, respectively. The photocurrent value is increased from 5.37 × 10−7 to 3.77 × 10−6 A on increasing the Nd doping content from 0 to 6%. The Responsivity, External quantum efficiency, and Detectivity of pristine and doped samples were also studied. We found that the 6% Nd-doped sample shows improved values of optoelectronic parameters which indicate that it is a potential candidate for photodetector applications.
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•Neodymium-doped ZnO thin films fabricated using chemical bath approach.•Structural features analyzed by Rietveld refinement and Williamson-Hall method.•SEM analysis revealed nanowire morphology of the fabricated thin films.•Nd-doping reduces the optical bandgap of ZnO thin films.•Enhancement of optoelectronic parameters of Nd-doped ZnO studied systematically.