The optical properties of Ce-doped SnS quantum dots with fast nanosecond lifetime

The doping of luminescent semiconductor nanoparticles has been a hotspot of research, especially rare earth element doped Nano-fluorescent material as a result of their distinct electronic structures. Herein, the investigation of the Ce³⁺ doping content effect on the UV–vis absorption, electronic structures, luminescence decay, and photoluminescence of SnS is one of crucial orientations of this. In this work, a reproducible gas and liquid chemical deposition method is used to synthesize the SnS and SnS:Ce³⁺ quantum dots. It has been detected that by doping Ce³⁺, the photoluminescence peak SnS can be enhanced clearly and the direct bandgap energy of SnS:Ce³⁺ quantum dots has gradually decreased, which indicates doping Ce³⁺ can effectively control the optical properties of SnS. The lifetime values of SnS:Ce³⁺ quantum dots has significantly shorten in comparison to the pure SnS and due to the overlapped energy levels of Ce³⁺ and Sn²⁺, the luminescence of SnS quantum dots will improve. By using the first principles of density functional theory (DFT), we calculated the total density of states (TDOS), the band structure and the partial densities of states (PDOS) of SnS and SnS:Ce³⁺ structures. The aforesaid experimental results have been attested by the calculating results exactly.