Europium doping-induced stability and quantum confinement effect in ZnO quantum well wires QWW: Electronic structure calculation and material structural investigation in terms of band-gap shift

• Representative rare-earth doped materials with a minimal lattice layers mismatch.
• The lattice compatibility for understanding doped ZnO quantum wells alteration.
• Controlled and enhanced spray pyrolisis method as a low-cost synthesis protocol.
• Gathering conjoint classical and scientific analyses.

ZnO quantum well wires QWW have been grown on glass substrates by an inexpensive, simplified and enhanced spray pyrolysis technique, at 460 °C and using Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O as main precursor. Consecutively, the as-grown wires have been gradually doped by Europium within hexa-hydrated chlorinated Europium EuCl3·6H2O (ACROS, 99.0% purity) with different europium-doping levels (0, 0.5 and 1.0 at%). The effects of Eu-doping on the structural and optical properties of the QWW were investigated. Results reflect that accuracy of control can be achieved on functional performance by adjusting doping extent. Two-dimensional self-consistent calculations of the electronic structure within the Brillouin zone, along with Lattice Compatibility Theory analyses results show excellent agreement with the experimental results.

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