We show that light emission from different systems of silicon nanocrystals does behave as expected for indirect-band-gap quantum dots. Photoluminescence excited on the low energy part of the distribution of Si nanocrystals exhibits a set of narrow peaks associated with Si TA and TO momentumconserving phonon-assisted optical transitions. These spectra allow us to determine the ratio of nophonon transitions to TA and TO phonon-assisted processes over a wide range of confinement energies. The ratio between these recombination channels changes by 2 orders of magnitude with increasing confinement energy. For confinement energies above 0.7 eV the radiative transitions are governed by no-phonon quasidirect processes. [S0031-9007 (98)07199-3] PACS numbers: 78.55.Ap, 78.66.Li

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To improve the stability of porous Si (PS) prepared by electrochemical etching, we make use of rapid-thermal oxidation (RTO). During RTO processing, the hydride coverage of the internal surfaces of the pores is replaced by a high-quality oxide while retaining nm-sized Si grains. With increasing process temperature Tox the luminescence is first quenched. It is recovered with comparable intensity for Tox≥700 °C.

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