Synthesis and characterizations of Ag-doped CdO nanoparticles for P-N junction diode application

This paper reports chemical route assisted microwave irradiation based synthesis of pure and Ag doped CdO nanoparticles. The effects of the Ag doping on the structural, optical, morphological and electrical properties of CdO nanoparticles are systematically analyzed. The XRD patterns exhibit cubic structure and calculated average particle size is in the range 35-22 nm. FTIR and XPS results confirm the formation of pure and Ag doped CdO. FESEM and TEM images display the hexagonal rod shape as concentration of Ag increases. The presence of elements Ag, Cd and O are confirmed by EDX analysis. UV-DRS results show that the optical band gap decreases with increase in Ag concentration. The I-V results show the activation energy range from 0.45 to 0.08 eV. The diode parameters such as ideality factor (n) and barrier height (Phi(b)) of the fabricated n-AgCdO/p-Si are studied under darkness and halogen light conditions.