Influence of precursor ratio and dopant concentration on the structure and optical properties of Cu-doped ZnCdSe-alloyed quantum dots

Tunable copper doped Zn1-xCdxS alloy quantum dots (QDs) were successfully synthesized by the wet chemical method. A one-step method is developed to synthesize doped ternary QDs which is more preferable than a two-step method. The influence of experimental parameters like the Zn/Cd ratio and Cu dopant concentration has been investigated using various spectroscopic techniques like UV-visible, photoluminescence, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The absorption and emission properties can be tuned by changing the concentration of components of the ternary QDs. The high concentration of dopant completely quenched the emission of the ternary QDs. EDX gives confirmation of the elemental composition of the synthesized samples. The obtained results suggest the successful doping of the ternary QDs. Interestingly, the study results revealed that the crystal structure (ZB and/or WZ) and the dual emission of the Cu-doped Zn1-xCdxSe alloy QDs could be controlled by varying the dopant concentration and chemical composition of the host. Doping also leads to enhancement in emission properties and provides more stability to ternary QDs. The enhancement in the photoluminescence (PL) decay lifetime of Cu-doped ternary QDs can be advantageous for optoelectronic and biosensor applications.