Structural, optical and ferroelectric properties of V doped ZnO

Present work reports the structural, optical and ferroelectric properties of vanadium doped ZnO samples synthesized via solid state reaction method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) study confirms the presence of hexagonal wurtzite phase and the slight changes in lattice parameters is observed after V doping in host ZnO and impurity oxide of ZnV2O6. Presence of E-1 and E-2 modes in Raman spectroscopy of V doped ZnO indicates the stability of the wurtzite structure of ZnO, which is consistent with the XRD results. UV-Vis spectroscopy results show decrease in band gap of ZnO from 3.35 to 3.24 eV for 1 % V doped sample, whereas it increases with the V doping and increase in the impurity of ZnV2O6. Furthermore, it is observed that the ferroelectric polarisation of ZnO improves by V doping. Above results show that one need to consider the presence of ZnO in composite form of oxides of Zn and V and not as a pure V doped ZnO system.