Silicon carbide (SiC)
has become an extraordinary photonic material.
Achieving reproducible self-formation of silicon quantum dots (SiQDs)
within SiC matrices could be beneficial for producing electroluminescent
devices operating at high power, high temperatures, or high voltages.
In this work, we use a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
system to grow SiC thin films. We identified that a particular combination
of 20 sccm of CH
4
and a range of 58–100 sccm of
H
2
mass flow with 600 °C annealing allows the abundant
and reproducible self-formation of SiQDs within the SiC films. These
SiQDs dramatically increase the photoluminescence-integrated intensity
of our SiC films. The photoluminescence of our SiQDs shows a normal
distribution with positive skewness and well-defined intensity maxima
in blue regions of the electromagnetic spectrum (439–465 nm)
and is clearly perceptible to the naked eye.
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