Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
A systematic study of the PL spectra of Si quantum nanocrystals in the SiO2 matrix has been performed. The results have been fitted to a quantum-confinement model that includes the nanocrystal size dispersion rather than a specific size of the nanocrystal. This serves as a strong confirmation of the confinement-induced nature of the PL. It has been shown that if the dispersion is taken into account, the position of the emission peak as well as the PL width can always be correlated with the average size of the nanocrystal.