Temperature dependence of photoluminescence from localized states of silicon nanocrystals in silicon‐implanted quartz

Abstract

Silicon nanocrystals were produced in fused quartz by using very high Si-ion implantation energy (2 MeV); hence the penetration depth of 2 μm is 20 times larger than those of other works. We have measured carefully the photoluminescence (PL) intensity in the temperature range between 4 and 300 K. By using a model taking account of a process of radiative recombination from the triplet and singlet states and two non-radiative decay processes, a tunnelling process and a thermal activation process, we obtained a good agreement between the theoretical curve and the experimental data. This calculation is the first attempt to explain quantitatively the temperature dependence of the PL intensity of the silicon nanocrystals.