Correlation between matrix structural order and compressive stress exerted on silicon nanocrystals embedded in silicon-rich silicon oxide

Abstract

Silicon nanocrystals embedded in a silicon oxide matrix were deposited by radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtering. By means of Raman spectroscopy, we have found that a compressive stress is exerted on the silicon nanocrystal cores. The stress varies as a function of silicon concentration in the silicon-rich silicon oxide layers varies, which can be attributed to changes of nanocrystal environment. By conducting the Fourier transform infrared absorption experiments, we have correlated the stresses exerted on the nanocrystal core to the degree of matrix structural order.PACS78.67.Bf, 78.67.Pt, 73.63.Bd, 78.47.D, 74.25.Nd

Excitation mechanism and thermal emission quenching of Tb ions in silicon rich silicon oxide thin films grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition—Do we need silicon nanoclusters?

“…In both cases, the observed results can be related to the lowering of the degree of structural order of the SRSO matrix. 28 Figures 1(b) and 1(d) present quantitative analysis of FTIR spectra together with information on defect formation in the SRSO matrix supported by the PALS data (Figs. 1(b) 1(d) show the FWHM of the main FTIR peak as a function of Si concentration and the annealing temperature.…”

Relationship between the Properties and Cycle Life of Si/C Composites as Performance-Enhancing Additives to Graphite Electrodes for Li-Ion Batteries

“…Amorphous silicon has been reported to have a characteristic Raman band at ∼480 cm −166 and a very broad 65 or asymmetric 67 Raman peak is observed when silicon crystallites have a significant degree of disorder. For our Si/C composites, the silicon peak is symmetrical, and its shift and width are rather low compared to the ones reported for amorphous silicon, suggesting that the degree of disorder of silicon surface, if any, is insignificant, below detection limit.…”

Correlation of size and oxygen bonding at the interface of Si nanocrystal in Si–SiO2 nanocomposite: A Raman mapping study

“…[51] Primarily PCM has been used to explain Raman spectroscopy results reported for Si NCs grown using various techniques. [11][12][13]19,20,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][43][44][45] Further, in the literature, it is already noted that PCM alone is inadequate to give correct red shift and line shape fitting simultaneously, specially for wavenumbers below 512 cm À1 . [11,12,24,25,28,30,33,36,[44][45][46] Several groups have addressed this discrepancy, and different solutions have been proposed to obtain correct red shift along with correct line shape fitting as briefly accounted in the succeeding texts.…”

“…[7] Irrespective of growth technique used , variation in Si phonon wavenumbers in the range 495-519 cm À1 in Si-SiO 2 NCp is reported in the literature. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]25,26,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][36][37][38]41] Various groups have reported different Si phonon wavenumbers in the range noted in the preceding texts, using different excitations for Si-SiO 2 NCps. There have been few attempts to consolidate the findings; however, the variation of Si phonon wavenumbers observed in these NCps cannot be completely explained using presently proposed models.…”