title: Effect of thermal treatment on the growth, structure and luminescence of nitride-passivated silicon nanoclusters.
abstract: Silicon nanoclusters (Si-ncs) embedded in silicon nitride films have been studied to determine the effects that deposition and processing parameters have on their growth, luminescent properties, and electronic structure. Luminescence was observed from Si-ncs formed in silicon-rich silicon nitride films with a broad range of compositions and grown using three different types of chemical vapour deposition systems. Photoluminescence (PL) experiments revealed broad, tunable emissions with peaks ranging from the near-infrared across the full visible spectrum. The emission energy was highly dependent on the film composition and changed only slightly with annealing temperature and time, which primarily affected the emission intensity. The PL spectra from films annealed for duration of times ranging from 2 s to 2 h at 600 and 800°C indicated a fast initial formation and growth of nanoclusters in the first few seconds of annealing followed by a slow, but steady growth as annealing time was further increased. X-ray absorption near edge structure at the Si K- and L3,2-edges exhibited composition-dependent phase separation and structural re-ordering of the Si-ncs and silicon nitride host matrix under different post-deposition annealing conditions and generally supported the trends observed in the PL spectra.
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering Physics and Centre for Emerging Device Technologies, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S4L7, Canada. wilsonpr@mcmaster.ca.
authors.forename: Patrick Rj
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Tyler
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Roschuk
authors.forename: Kayne
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Elise N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Normand
authors.forename: Evgueni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chelomentsev
authors.forename: Othman Hy
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Zalloum
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wojcik
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mascher