Structural and optical analysis of Zn1−xCdxO nanopowder synthesized by Hydrothermal method

Zn1−xCdxO nanopowder in a wide range of Cd contents has been obtained by hydrothermal synthesis method. Synthesized nanopowder was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Transmission electron microscopy and Photoluminescence. As x varies from 0 to 1, it was observed that the crystal structure changes from wurtzite (ZnO) to mixture of wurtzite and cubic, and finally to cubic (CdO) structure. The wurtzite-type structure of ZnO can be stabilized up to nominal Cd content x~0.1 without cubic CdO phase separation. For the Zn1−xCdxO nanopowder with wurzite structure, a significant change was observed in ultra-violet near-band-edge emission with variation in Cd content x. The change is attributed to the direct modulation of band gap caused by Zn/Cd substitution.