Comparative study on structural, morphological, and optical properties of MS/Fe3O4 nanocomposites and M-doped Fe3O4 nanopowders (M = Mn, Zn)

Abstract

Abstract In the present work, the un-doped, M-doped magnetite (Fe3O4); (M = Mn, Zn), and MS/Fe3O4 composite nanopowders with a cubic spinel-type structure and average crystallite size range from 8.30 to 12.33 nm were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The FESEM images revealed the shape of particles are spherical with a grain size in the range of 33.44–49.77 nm. Through the analysis of reflectance data using Tauc’s model, the direct band gap energies of 2.98 eV, 2.93 eV, 3.01 eV, 2.85 eV, and 2.95 eV were determined for Un-doped Fe3O4, Mn-doped Fe3O4, Zn-doped Fe3O4, MnS/Fe3O4 composite, and ZnS/Fe3O4 composite NPs respectively. The parameters such as extinction coefficient and refractive index of the nanoparticles were computed by the Kramers–Kronig (K–K) method. Non-linear optical (NLO) parameters were computed from DRS data using the Wemple–Di-Domenico (WDD) model. The calculated third-order NLO susceptibility $${\chi }^{(3)}$$ χ ( 3 ) and also electrical susceptibility $${\chi }_{\left(e\right)}$$ χ e represented the maximum value for MnS/Fe3O4 composite NPs compared to the other samples. Considering the advanced optical parameters of MS/Fe3O4 composite samples, these particles can be suitable candidates for non-linear optical applications.

Keywords

• Fe3O4 NPs
• Tauc’s model
• Urbach energy
• Kramers–Kronig
• Wemple–DiDomenico method