*3.2.3 TEM of Zn0.91Ni0.05Ce0.04O nanoparticles*

The Zn0.91Ni0.05Ce0.04O (ZNiO/Ce) nanoparticles were synthesized by a sol-gel process [27]. **Figure 4c** shows their TEM image with an average size of nanoparticles of 81 nm.

#### *3.2.4 Atomic force microscopy (AFM) of pure ZnO*

The ZnO thin film is prepared by a sol–gel MOD method [45] with the average size of nanoparticles of 40 nm (**Figure 4d**).

#### **3.3 First principle calculation for DMS ZnO with TM and RE ions**
