SiC nanodot formation in amorphous-Si and poly-Si substrates using a hot-C+-ion implantation technique

Abstract

We experimentally studied SiC nanodot formation in an amorphous-Si (a-Si) and poly-Si on quartz substrates, using a hot-C+-ion implantation technique and post-N2 annealing, compared with SiC-dots in a (100) crystal-Si (c-Si) on insulator substrate. Even in the poor crystal quality substrates of the C+-ion implanted in a-Si and poly-Si layers, we experimentally verified 3C-SiC dot formation by transmission electron microscopy, and the strong photoluminescence (PL) intensity in the near-UV-vis regions, because a-Si is partially poly-crystallized by the high-temperature processes of hot-C+-ion implantation and post-N2 annealing. The PL spectral line shape strongly depends on the Si crystal structures, but the peak PL intensity after N2 annealing is almost independent of the Si crystal structures. Moreover, the PL spectrum can be explained by the sum of PL emissions from different cubic and hexagonal polytypes of SiC. We clarified that the three Si crystal structures have a different contribution ratio of PL components of SiC polytypes.