Influence of Radiation on the Luminescence of Silicon Nanocrystals Embedded into SiO2 Film

Abstract EN

Influence of γ-irradiation on light emission properties of silicon nanocrystals imbedded into SiO2 film is investigated.

It was shown that small doses of γ-irradiation (103–105 rad) lead to enhancement of photoluminescence intensity in the nc-Si/SiO2 samples.

This effect was explained by radiation induced passivation of recombination active centers on the nanocrystals surface.

High doses of irradiation (~107 rad) lead to the photoluminescence intensity decrease up to 2 times.

Radiation treatment of silicon oxide films with embedded amorphous silicon inclusions resulted only in the decrease of the photoluminescence intensity within the whole range of doses (103–5 × 107 rad).

Radiation defects resulting in partial quenching of photoluminescence are characterized with the distributed activation energy of annealing with the peak position at ~0.96 eV and the frequency factor 107 s−1.

The nature of such defects and the mechanisms of their creation are discussed.