Strong blue light emission from a-SiNx:O films via localized surface plasmon enhancement

Abstract

Strong and stable blue photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature has been observed from amorphous oxidized silicon nitride (a-SiNx:O) films with Ag nanoparticles inserted between a-SiNx:O films and Si substrates. The resonant excitation of localized surface plasmons (LSPs) with the emission of a-SiNx:O films has resulted in an increase in the internal quantum efficiency, from 3.9% to 8.4%. We have found that the PL efficiency ratio induced by resonant coupling is close to the enhancement of the spontaneous emission rate of a-SiNx:O, which demonstrates that a-SiNx:O films with LSP-enhanced blue emission is promising for silicon-based light-emitting applications.

The Role of N–Si–O Defect States in Optical Gain from an a‐SiNxOy/SiO2 Waveguide and in Light Emission from an n‐a‐SiNxOy/p‐Si Heterojunction LED

“…The other is Si‐based compound such as Si carbide (a‐SiC x ), Si nitride (a‐SiN x ), and Si oxynitride (a‐SiO x N y ) . Among such Si‐based luminescent materials, light emission from a‐SiO x N y has received considerable attention in recent years due to its advantages such as strong light emission, tunable photoluminescence (PL) emission, and high PL efficiency . However, the luminescence mechanism for a‐SiN x O y remains unclear.…”

Contact resistance improvement using interfacial silver nanoparticles in amorphous indium-zinc-oxide thin film transistors

“…For instance, TFTs with Ag NPs embedded in the ZnO/SiO 2 interface exhibit a large clockwise hysteresis (I D -V G ) 11 and a-SiN x :O thin films with Ag NPs inserted between the a-SiN x :O and Si produce highly efficient blue light emission. 12 The introduction of nanoparticles at a high specific resistance metal/semiconductor interface increases surface area and locally enhances the electric fields, thereby reducing contact resistance. Nanoparticles of Ag were chosen for this work because Ag is thermodynamically stable on IZO 13 and because procedures for fabricating uniform NPs from blanket deposits of Ag have been demonstrated 12 at relatively low temperature (300 C).…”

“…12 The introduction of nanoparticles at a high specific resistance metal/semiconductor interface increases surface area and locally enhances the electric fields, thereby reducing contact resistance. Nanoparticles of Ag were chosen for this work because Ag is thermodynamically stable on IZO 13 and because procedures for fabricating uniform NPs from blanket deposits of Ag have been demonstrated 12 at relatively low temperature (300 C).…”

“…Thermal annealing was performed at 300 C for 20 min in N 2 atmosphere to obtain roughly spherical Ag nanoparticles. 12 The Ag particles were then buried at the interface by room temperature sputter deposition of 100 nm of conducting IZO (same sputtering parameters, but in pure Ar gas, yielding a carrier concentration $10 20 cm À3 ). For performance comparison, identical IZO TFT devices were fabricated (i) without any Ag NP interfacial layer and (ii) with 100 nm thick Ag contact metal.…”

Investigation on silver nanoparticles-based plasmonic antireflection and its impact on electrical performance of mono c-Si solar cells

“…This increment in reflection results in reduction short circuit current as for PV-1 it was 35.5 mA/cm 2 which becomes 31.4 mA/cm 2 . Here the short circuit current was estimated from EQE data using equation (2) for wavelength range 300 nm -1200 nm. However the Sun's Voc measurement suggests that there is relatively minimum change in implied Voc, Vm and fill factor.…”