Abstract
In this paper, we report the characteristics of low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) from condensed electron-hole (e-h) pairs in p-type silicon substrates with and without high-aspect-ratio trench structures. The average hole diameters of trenches were 140 and 170 nm, and the depth of trenches were about 5 μm. An Al2O3 surface passivation layer with thickness of 10 nm was grown by atomic layer deposition on surfaces of all samples to reduce nonradiative recombination and provide nucleation centers of condensed e-h pairs at Si/Al2O3 interface. Significant enhancement of PL intensity from e-h liquid/droplet (EHL/EHD) was observed in the trenched silicon at temperature below 30 K. Dominant PL from EHL/EHD at 14 K in the trenched silicon with larger hole diameters may be attributed to stronger spatial confinement of condensed e-h pairs in a smaller volume.
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