Synthesis of irradiated zinc sulfide nanoflakes for photosensitive study

In this work we employed an electron irradiation technique to prepare zinc sulfide nanoflakes with various dimensions by irradiating electrodeposited thin films. This study reports the effect of irradiation of 2 MeV electron beam on the crystal structure, surface morphology, optical properties and photosensitive properties of zinc sulfide thin films. The electron beam irradiated films were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis). Upon electron beam irradiation, the band gap energy of zinc sulfide decreases from 3.61 to 3.31 eV along with an increase in the crystal size form 47–78 nm. The fluence of the electron beam was 2×1013 electrons/2 µs cm2. The crystal size was found to increase upon electron beam irradiation and materials exhibit better crystallization. Similar results were also observed in the X-ray diffraction studies, where peak intensity increased upon electron beam irradiation.