Light Emission from Silicon-Rich Nitride Nanostructures

2008-01-01
Dal Negro, Luca
Li, Rui
Warga, Joseph
Yerci, Selçuk
Basu, Soumendra
Hamel, Sebastien
Galli, Giulia
Light-emitting Si-rich silicon nitride (SRN) films were fabricated by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition followed by low temperature (500–900°C) annealing. The optical properties of SRN films were studied by micro-Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy and indicate the presence of small Si clusters characterized by broad near-infrared emission, large absorption/emission Stokes shift, and nanosecond recombination. Our results are supported by first-principles simulations indicating that N atoms bonded to the surface of nanometer Si clusters play a crucial role in the emission mechanism of SRN films. Light emission from SRN systems can provide alternative routes towards the fabrication of optically active Si devices. This work was supported by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Contract No. DMR 02-13282 and made use of MRSEC Shared Facilities supported by NSF. The authors acknowledge V. Sukhovatkin, F. Chang, and Professor E. H. Sargent at the University of Toronto, Canada. The LLNL work was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48.

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Citation Formats
L. Dal Negro et al., Light Emission from Silicon-Rich Nitride Nanostructures. 2008.