Photoluminescence in the silicon-oxygen system

Abstract

The luminescent properties of SiOx ranging in composition between x=0 and x=2 are presented. Luminescence in the SiOx system is found to be tunable across the full visible spectrum and into the near infrared. The data are used to generate an emission color map for the complete SiOx system. At the lower annealing temperatures, several lines of evidence suggest that the luminescence is due to the presence of amorphous silicon nanoclusters, whereas for higher annealing temperatures the emission is dominated by silicon nanocrystals.

Interaction between rare-earth ions and amorphous silicon nanoclusters produced at low processing temperatures

“…This is similar to the case for amorphous silicon, which is generally reported to have two or three lifetime components ranging from 1 ms to as much as 1 ms [14,15]. As we reported recently [17], the temperature dependence of the integrated intensity of this peak increased by 4-5 on going from 4 to 300 K and showed a saturation behavior near 20 K-also consistent with investigations of amorphous silicon films [18] and amorphous porous silicon [19]. Having established that the PL has many characteristics similar to amorphous silicon, we attempted to model the spectrum assuming that the PL originates from amorphous silicon nanoparticles.…”

Periodic Mesoporous Hydridosilica − Synthesis of an “Impossible” Material and Its Thermal Transformation into Brightly Photoluminescent Periodic Mesoporous Nanocrystal Silicon-Silica Composite

“…17À19 In these systems, ncSi size-control is usually achieved by changing the SiO x composition and peak thermal processing temperature. 19,34 In SiO x /SiO 2 superlattices, an additional size control strategy has been developed, involving the spatially confined growth of ncSi within the SiO x layers. 35 Using controlled evaporation deposition techniques, it was found that the size of ncSi was dependent on SiO x layer thicknesses ranging from 2 to 7 nm, with thicker layers giving rise to larger ncSi.…”

Direct Patterning, Conformal Coating, and Erbium Doping of Luminescent nc‐Si/SiO2 Thin Films from Solution Processable Hydrogen Silsesquioxane

“…1d). [14] Having established the presence of luminescent silicon nanocrystals in thermally processed HSQ thin films, it was necessary to demonstrate the fabrication of structures that exploit the benefits of this method. These advantages include: first, unlike for deposition-based methods, both thin films and macroscopic quantities of nc-Si/SiO 2 can be readily produced.…”