Spectroscopic and structural properties of zinc oxide nanosphere as random laser medium

This work focuses on the preparation and description of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) by hydrothermal method. The ZnONPs here were used as scattering center after mixture with R6G at concentration 10⁻⁴ mol/l which was doped by PMMA polymer as a film. The UV–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-rays (EDS) spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were performed to characterize the growth, morphology, and optical nature of the samples. Practical results indicate a pure growth of ZnO in the solid case by hydrothermal manufacture technique that can produce high crystallinity and a perfect hexagonal quartzite structure. The average particle sizes were measured to range from 10 to 140 nm. The PL spectrum for pure ZnO as powder appears as maximum peak intensity of ultraviolet region at 385 nm and blue emission band around 472 nm at room temperature (RT), while it is observed that sharp peaks with a linewidth of ~ 10 nm emerge from the emission spectra for the sample at ~ 16 mJ pump energy. It is observed that the peak emission wavelength of the dye ZnONP-doped PMMA as a host (~ 569 nm) is different from that of the bare ZnO nanospheres (~ 385 nm).