Room temperature synthesis and spectral characterizations of Fe3+-doped CdO powder

•Fe3+ ion doped CdO powder was synthesized at room temperature.•XRD data reveals the crystal structure and average crystalline size.•Optical absorption spectrum exhibited characteristic bands for Fe3+ ions.•From the EPR spectrum spin Hamiltonian value was evaluated.•FT-IR spectrum indicates the fundamental vibrations of host lattice and metal ion.

Fe3+ doped CdO powder was prepared at room temperature using a mild and simple solution method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the prepared material has cubic structure. The average crystalline size evaluated using the Debye–Scherrer method is 24 nm. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show the surface morphology of nano-crystalline CdO powder, and the Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectrum indicates the presence of a transition metal ion. The optical absorption spectrum shows characteristic bands for Fe3+ with octahedral site symmetry. The crystal field parameter (Dq) and the Racah inter-electronic repulsion parameters (B and C) were evaluated. The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum shows a resonance signal at g = 2.0128, which indicates Fe3+ ions in tetragonally-distorted octahedral site symmetry. This is also confirmed using the optical absorption spectrum. FT-IR shows the fundamental vibrations of the host lattice.