Simple room temperature synthesis and optical studies on Mg doped ZnO nanostructures

We report simple room temperature synthesis of Mg doped ZnO nanostructures through the sol–gel method. X-ray diffraction shows the prepared ZnO particles are in wurtzite structure and replacement of Zn2+ by Mg2+ alters the position of the X-ray diffraction peak slightly towards higher angle. Measured optical absorption spectra show the exciton peaks of ZnO present around 366, 296 and 235 nm. Room temperature photoluminescence measurements show strong peaks around 385, 394 nm are attributed to band edge exciton emission; other peaks found at 469 and 558 are attributed to oxygen ion vacancy and formation of Vo+ and Vo++ centers in nanostructures.