The interest in the G-centre is driven by reports that it can lase in silicon. To further this, the transfer of this technology from bulk silicon to a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform is an essential requirement to progress to lasing and optical amplification on silicon. We report on the efficient generation of the lasing G-centre in SOI substrates by proton irradiation of carbon ion implants. Following carbon implantation samples were annealed and then proton irradiated to form the G-centre and characterized by photoluminescence measurements. The temperature dependence of the emission and the behaviour of the G-centre with post proton annealing were investigated and results are compared with identical implants in control samples of bulk silicon. Overall, we find that the optically active G-centre can be up to 300% brighter and has better survivability over a wider process window in SOI than in bulk silicon.
The super enhancement of silicon band edge luminescence when co-implanted with boron and carbon is reported. The role of boron in the band edge emissions in silicon was investigated by deliberately introducing defects into the lattice structures. We aimed to increase the light emission intensity from silicon by boron implantation, leading to the formation of dislocation loops between the lattice structures. The silicon samples were doped with a high concentration of carbon before boron implantation and then annealed at a high temperature to activate the dopants into substitutional lattice sites. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were performed to observe the emissions at the near-infrared region. The temperatures were varied from 10 K to 100 K to study the effect of temperature on the peak luminescence intensity. Two main peaks could be seen at ~1112 and 1170 nm by observing the PL spectra. The intensities shown by both peaks in the samples incorporated with boron are significantly higher than those in pristine silicon samples, and the highest intensity in the former was 600 times greater than that in the latter. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to study the structure of post-implant and post-anneal silicon sample. The dislocation loops were observed in the sample. Through a technique compatible with mature silicon processing technology, the results of this study will greatly contribute to the development of all Si-based photonic systems and quantum technologies.
We study the induced defects in the depth profiling of the silicon structure after being implanted with carbon and followed by high energy proton irradiation. It has been reported before that the formation of the optically active point-defect, specifically the G-centre is due to the implantation and irradiation of carbon and proton, respectively. It is crucial to quantify the diffusional broadening of the implanted ion profile especially for proton irradiation process so that the radiation damage evolution can be maximized at the point-defect formation region. Profiling analysis was carried out using computational Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) and Surrey University Sputter Profile Resolution from Energy Deposition (SUSPRE) simulation. The energies of carbon ions adopted for this investigation are 10, 20, 30, and 50 keV, while proton irradiation energy was kept at 2 MeV. Photoluminescence measurements on silicon implanted with carbon at different energies were carried out to study the interrelation between the numbers of vacancies produced during the damage event and the peak emission intensities.
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