PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY AND DARKCONDUCTIVITY STUDIES OF Mn-DOPED ZnS NANOPARTICLES

In the present work an attempt has been made to study the photoconductivity and dark-conductivity characteristics of doped ZnS nanoparticles. Photoconductivity and dark-conductivity are measured at room temperature under visible illumination. The Mn-doped ZnS nanoparticles synthesized by co-precipitation technique are found to exhibit anomalous behavior of photocurrent which decreases with increased intensity of illumination. At 5000 lux of illumination photocurrent is found to be even lower than the dark-current. The variation of photocurrent with applied voltage is super-linear. Structural studies using XRD and TEM have been performed. The calculated particle size of ZnS: Mn nanoparticles is 2.8 nm.