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The luminescent properties of SiOx ranging in composition between x=0 and x=2 are presented. Luminescence in the SiOx system is found to be tunable across the full visible spectrum and into the near infrared. The data are used to generate an emission color map for the complete SiOx system. At the lower annealing temperatures, several lines of evidence suggest that the luminescence is due to the presence of amorphous silicon nanoclusters, whereas for higher annealing temperatures the emission is dominated by silicon nanocrystals.

The luminescent infrared transitions in Nd3+ can be activated via a transfer mechanism from amorphous silicon nanoclusters. The Nd photoluminescence (PL) has some unusual characteristics, including a weak temperature dependence of the PL intensity. The data are explained using a simple rate equation model which enables an effective nanocluster-to-neodymium transfer time of ∼0.15μs to be extracted. This is short enough to dominate the intrinsic nanocluster decay rates at low temperatures but long enough to imply that the coupling between the nanoclusters and the Nd ions is, in fact, weaker than for Nd-doped bulk silicon or other semiconductors.

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