title: Quantum confinement in amorphous silicon quantum dots embedded in silicon nitride.
abstract: Amorphous silicon quantum dots (a-Si QDs) were grown in a silicon nitride film by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Transmission electron micrographs clearly demonstrated that a-Si QDs were formed in the silicon nitride. Photoluminescence and optical absorption energy measurement of a-Si QDs with various sizes revealed that tuning of the photoluminescence emission from 2.0 to 2.76 eV is possible by controlling the size of the a-Si QD. Analysis also showed that the photoluminescence peak energy E was related to the size of the a-Si QD, a (nm) by E(eV) = 1.56+2.40/a(2), which is a clear evidence for the quantum confinement effect in a-Si QDs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Optoelectronic Materials Research, Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Kwangju, 500-712, Korea.
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: T Y
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Seong
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Park