Structural and optical properties of a NaCl single crystal doped with CuO nanocrystals

A cupric oxide (CuO) nanocrystal-doped NaCl single crystal and a pure NaCl single crystal are grown by using the Czochralski (Cz) method. A number of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, optical absorption in the UV-visible range, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy are used to characterize the obtained NaCl and NaCl: CuO crystals. It is observed that the average radius of CuO crystallites in NaCl: CuO crystal is about 29.87 nm, as derived from the XRD data analysis. Moreover, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy results confirm the existence of the monoclinic CuO phase in NaCl crystal. UV-visible absorption measurements indicate that the band gap of the NaCl: CuO crystal is 434 nm (2.85 eV), and it shows a significant amount of blue-shift (Delta E-g = 1 eV) in the band gap energy of CuO, which is due to the quantum confinement effect exerted by the CuO nanocrystals. The PL spectrum of the NaCl: CuO shows a broad emission band centred at around 438 nm, which is consistent with the absorption measurement.