Structure and optical properties of iron doped ZnSe microspheres

Iron (Fe) doped ZnSe microspheres were fabricated by solvothermal method . X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate that Fe 2+ cations were incorporated into the zinc blende ZnSe lattices successfully and uniformly distributed in sample. SEM images displayed that doping with Fe 2+ cations did not change the morphology of microspheres . The growth mechanism of Fe-doped ZnSe microspheres was proposed. The band gap increases and photoluminescence (PL) peaks in visible region show blue-shift as doping with Fe ions . In addition, a reduction in PL lifetimes in visible range was also observed, which may be due to the increase in non-radiative energy transfer between Fe 2+ doping in the ZnSe matrix. The 5 E↔ 5 T 2 transition of Fe 2+ in the 3.6–5.5 μm spectral range was observed in Fe-doped sample at low temperature.