Nanosilicon photonics

Abstract

Silicon photonics is no longer an emerging field of research and technology but a present reality with commercial products available on the market, where low-dimensional silicon (nanosilicon or nano-Si) can play a fundamental role. After a brief history of the field, the optical properties of silicon reduced to nanometric dimensions are introduced. The use of nano-Si, in the form of Si nanocrystals, in the main building blocks of silicon photonics (waveguides, modulators, sources and detectors) is reviewed and discussed. Recent advances of nano-Si devices such as waveguides, optical resonators (linear, rings, and disks) are treated. Emphasis is placed on the visible optical gain properties of nano-Si and to the sensitization effect on Er ions to achieve infrared light amplification. The possibility of electrical injection in light-emitting diodes is presented as well as the recent attempts to exploit nano-Si for solar cells. In addition, nonlinear optical effects that will enable fast all-optical switches are described.

From amorphous to crystalline silicon nanoclusters: structural effects on exciton properties

“…This system is regarded as a basis for an important class of materials for the development of lasers [13], optical waveguides [14], photonic [15] and third generation solar cell devices [16] based on Si. The formation of Si-ncls within amorphous silicon oxides at different annealing stages has been studied by various techniques, and surprisingly high crystallization temperatures [2,3] and low activation energies of nanocrystal size growth [2,4] have been reported.…”

The energy band alignment of Si nanocrystals in SiO2

“…Seguini, 1,a) S. Schamm-Chardon, 2 P. Pellegrino, 3 The determination of the energy band alignment between the 2.6-nm-diameter Si nanocrystals and the SiO 2 host is achieved by means of photo-ionization/-neutralization and capacitance spectroscopy. The measured conduction and valence band offsets are 2.6 eV and 4.4 eV.…”

“…Si nanocrystals (ncs) embedded in oxide host have been intensively studied both to investigate the properties of the matter at nanometric scale and for nanoelectronic, optoelectronic, and photovoltaic applications. [1][2][3][4] The band gap of Si ncs increases when their size shrinks. Several theoretical works described this issue 5 and different optical techniques as photoluminescence (PL), spectroscopic ellissometry, and optical absorption have been used to prove this fact.…”

Study on the Fluorescence Characteristics of CdTe and Charged Coumarin-Contained Polymer Blending System

“…These highly fluorescent nanocrystals have showed great applying potential in the field of thin film lightemitting devices 6 , nonlinear optical devices 7 , solar cells 8,9 , especially of biological labels 10,11 . For the real applications of these highly fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals, the inherently instable particles are generally stabilized using inert inorganic or organic materials as matrices.…”