Crystal and electronic structure study of Mn doped wurtzite ZnO nanoparticles

The change in the crystal and electronic structure properties of wurtzite ZnO nanoparticles was studied according to Mn doping in the powder samples. The investigations were conducted by X-ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy (XAFS) technique for the samples prepared with different heating and doping processes. Electronic analysis was carried out by the collected data from the X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure Spectroscopy (XANES) measurements. Additional crystal structure properties were studied by Extended-XAFS (EXAFS) analysis. Longer heating periods for the undoped wurtzite ZnO samples were determined to own stable crystal geometries. However, for some doped samples, the distortions in the crystal were observed as a result of the low doping amounts of Mn which was treated as an impurity. Besides, the changes in oxygen locations were determined to create defects and distortions in the samples.