White, blue and green emission from Si QDs derived from zinc incorporated porous silicon

Abstract

This paper reports the tailored visible light emission (blue, green and white) traits of the colloidal silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) integrated with zinc (ZnSiQDs). These QDs were derived from the PSi etched with Zn powder. The ZnSiQDs was prepared via the photo-electrochemical etching process (40 mA/cm2 for 20 min) of the n-type Si wafer immersed inside the solution made from the hydrofluoric (HF) acid to ethanol (ET) volume ratios of 7:1 and 7:3 with the Zn powder (0.17 g) inclusion. The as-prepared samples (named as ZnSiQDs-7:1 and ZnSiQDs-7:3) were characterized to determine the influence of HF:ET on their structure, morphology and optical characteristics. The XPS analyses of the samples revealed the formation of ZnO. The FESEM images exhibited the growth of PSi layer of thickness 8.192 μm and 7.073 μm for the ZnSiQDs-7:3 and ZnSiQDs-7:1 samples, respectively. The EFTEM image analyses showed the nucleation of the ZnSiQDs of average diameter 2.7 nm (for ZnSiQDs-7:3) and 1.33 nm (for ZnSiQDs-7:1). The band gap energy for both samples estimated from the absorption spectra was 3.6 eV. The emission spectra of the studied ZnSiQDs under three different excitation wavelengths disclosed the intense visible peaks (blue, green and white) in the range of 385–700 nm. This observation was mainly ascribed to the effects of quantum confinement and ZnO surface layer on the SiQDs that minimized the silicon oxidation. It is established that by controlling the HF to ET volume ratio the visible luminescence of the ZnSiQDs can be customized, useful for diverse optoelectronic applications.