Optical Properties of Si and Ge/Si Nanocrystals in Silicon Oxide Matrix

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe contribution of oxide-related emission in Photoluminescence (PL) spectra from Ge and Si nanocrystals mixture embedded in silicon oxide (Ge/Si-SiO2) and Si nanocrystals embedded in silicon oxide (Si-SiO2) thin film prepared by RF-magnetron co-sputtering method is investigated. All as-deposited thin films were annealed for 1 hour in the temperature range from 300 to 1100 °C in an Ar atmosphere. The samples were evaluated by using PL, Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), Raman scattering and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. All the measurements were performed at room temperature. The maximum PL intensity of Ge+Si-SiO2 mixture thin film has increased more than the Si-SiO2 thin film by approximately 10 times. From the results of Raman scattering and XPS measurements, it is consider that the oxygen defect centers in the host material SiO2 increased by the diffusion of Ge. An increase in the PL intensity of Ge+Si-SiO2 mixture thin film is systematically discussed.