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Evolution of photoluminescence from Si nanocrystals embedded in a SiO2 matrix prepared by reactive pulsed laser deposition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Fang Fang ,
Wei Zhang ,
Jian Sun ,
Ning Xu ,
Jiang Zhu ,
Zhifeng Ying  and
Jiada Wu
Jiada Wu*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory for Advanced Photonic Materials and Devices, Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: jdwu@fudan.edu.cn
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Abstract

Photoluminescence (PL) properties of SiOx thin films deposited by pulsed laser ablation of Si in a reactive oxygen ambient and annealed in a nitrogen atmosphere were studied at room temperature. Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and optical transmission measurements were used to characterize the deposited films before and after annealing and complement the PL studies. Strong PL due to quantum confinement was observed at room temperature from Si nanocrystals with an average diameter of approximately 5 nm at 325-nm light excitation. An apparent dependence of PL on the oxygen pressure for film deposition was observed. A detailed analysis of the effects of the annealing temperature revealed a significant PL evolution in luminescence intensity, spectrum profile, peak position, and spectrum range with the annealing temperature ranging from 300 to 1200 °C. Structural variations induced by thermal annealing of the films deposited at different oxygen pressures were also discussed on the basis of their correlation with the PL evolution.

Keywords

AnnealingLuminescenceNanostructure
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 24 , Issue 7 , July 2009 , pp. 2259 - 2267
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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