Visible electroluminescence from semitransparent Au film/extra thin Si-rich silicon oxide film/p-Si structure

Abstract

Visible electroluminescence (EL) has been reported from semitransparent Au film/extra thin Si-rich silicon oxide film/p-Si diodes at room temperature. The Si-rich silicon oxide films, with thickness of about 40 Å, were grown using the magnetron sputtering technique. At forward bias of 4 V, EL spectra with peak energy of 1.9 eV and full width at half maximum of 0.5 eV can be observed from diodes with such extra thin Si-rich oxide films having not been annealed. EL peak energy shows a small red shift under low forward bias but does not shift again when increasing the bias further. Annealing at 800 °C, EL spectra widen and show several shoulders at about 1.5, 2.2, and 2.4 eV, and the EL peak energy shows blue shift with increasing forward bias. These results are shown to be consistent with light emission at several types of luminescence centers in the Si-rich silicon oxide films.