Structural and emission properties of Tb3+-doped nitrogen-rich silicon oxynitride films.

Terbium doped silicon oxynitride host matrix is suitable for various applications such as light emitters compatible with CMOS technology or frequency converter systems for photovoltaic cells. In this study, amorphous Tb3+ ion doped nitrogen-rich silicon oxynitride (NRSON) thin films were fabricated using a reactive magnetron co-sputtering method, with various N2 flows and annealing conditions, in order to study their structural and emission properties. Rutherford backscattering (RBS) measurements and refractive index values confirmed the silicon oxynitride nature of the films. An electron microscopy analysis conducted for different annealing temperatures (T A) was also performed up to 1200 °C. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed two different sublayers. The top layer showed porosities coming from a degassing of oxygen during deposition and annealing, while in the region close to the substrate, a multilayer-like structure of SiO2 and Si3N4 phases appeared, involving a spinodal decomposition. Upon a 1200 °C annealing treatment, a significant density of Tb clusters was detected, indicating a higher thermal threshold of rare earth (RE) clusterization in comparison to the silicon oxide matrix. With an opposite variation of the N2 flow during the deposition, the nitrogen excess parameter (Nex) estimated by RBS measurements was introduced to investigate the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum behavior and emission properties. Different vibration modes of the Si-N and Si-O bonds have been carefully identified from the FTIR spectra characterizing such host matrices, especially the 'out-of-phase' stretching vibration mode of the Si-O bond. The highest Tb3+ photoluminescence (PL) intensity was obtained by optimizing the N incorporation and the annealing conditions. In addition, according to these conditions, the integrated PL intensity variation confirmed that the silicon nitride-based host matrix had a higher thermal threshold of rare earth clusterization than its silicon oxide counterpart. Analysis of time-resolved PL intensity versus T A showed the impact of Tb clustering on decay times, in agreement with the TEM observations. Finally, PL and PL excitation (PLE) experiments and comparison of the related spectra between undoped and Tb-doped samples were carried out to investigate the impact of the band tails on the excitation mechanism of Tb3+ ions.

Green light emission from terbium doped silicon rich silicon oxide films obtained by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition.

The effect of silicon concentration and annealing temperature on terbium luminescence was investigated for thin silicon rich silicon oxide films. The structures were deposited by means of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The structural properties of these films were investigated by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy and Raman scattering. The optical properties were investigated by means of photoluminescence and photoluminescence decay spectroscopy. It was found that both the silicon concentration in the film and the annealing temperature have a strong impact on the terbium emission intensity. In this paper, we present a detailed discussion of these issues and determine the optimal silicon concentration and annealing temperature.

Correlation between stress and carrier nonradiative recombination for silicon nanocrystals in an oxide matrix.

Silicon nanocrystals embedded in an oxide matrix formed in a multilayer architecture were deposited by the magnetron sputtering method. By means of Raman spectroscopy we have found that compressive stress is exerted on the silicon nanocrystal core. The stress varies as a function of silicon concentration (O/Si ratio) in the silicon-rich oxide (SRO) layers, which can be attributed to the changing nanocrystal environment. By conducting the time-resolved spectroscopy experiment, we demonstrate that, depending on the nanocrystal surroundings, a different amount of nonradiative recombination sites participates in the excited carrier relaxation process, leading to changes of the relative quantum yield of photoluminescence.

Quantitative evaluation of boron-induced disorder in multilayers containing silicon nanocrystals in an oxide matrix designed for photovoltaic applications.

The effect of doping by boron on optical properties of multilayers containing Si-NCs were studied by means of photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved PL, photoluminescence excitation (PLE), transmission and reflection measurements. It was found that PL decay is strongly non-single exponential and can be described by means of Laplace transform of log-normal decay rates distribution. It was also proposed that changes observed in the distribution central moments reflect the disorder induced by boron-doping.

Temperature dependent emission quenching for silicon nanoclusters.

Silicon reach-silicon-oxide (SRSO) film containing silicon nanoclusters was obtained by the reactive magnetron sputtering. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra were measured as a function of temperature at different excitation wavelengths and additionally at different excitation power densities. Obtained PL spectra characterize by two emission bands centered at 1.6 and 2.4 eV. For these bands, temperature behaviour of PL intensities strongly differs but clearly correlate each other. Moreover, it has been observed that obtained PL intensities versus temperature exhibit a strong dependence on the excitation power density in the low temperature range.

On the choice of proper average lifetime formula for an ensemble of emitters showing non-single exponential photoluminescence decay.

In this paper, we investigate non-single exponential photoluminescence decays in various disordered condensed-matter systems. For such materials, two formulas for the average lifetime of system's excited state are commonly used in the analysis of experimental data. In many cases, the choice of formula is arbitrary and lacks a clear physical justification. For this reason, our main goal is to show that the choice of correct mathematical formula should be based on the interpretation of measured photoluminescence decay curve. It is shown that depending on the investigated system, after appropriate normalization, photoluminescence decay curve can represent either a survival probability function or a probability density function of lifetime and for this reason two different formulas for the average lifetime are required. It is also shown that, depending on luminescence quantum yield, some information on the probability density function of lifetime can be lost in the process of measurement, which results in underestimated values of average lifetime. Finally, we provide an interpretation of total decay rate distributions which are frequently obtained by phenomenological modeling of non-single exponential photoluminescence decays.

Effects of Si-rich oxide layer stoichiometry on the structural and optical properties of Si QD/SiO2 multilayer films.

The effects of the stoichiometry of the Si-rich oxide (SRO) layer, O/Si ratio, on the structural and optical properties of SRO/SiO2 multilayer films were investigated in this work. SRO/SiO2 multilayer films with different O/Si ratios were grown by a co-sputtering technique, and Si quantum dots (QDs) were formed with post-deposition annealing. By transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and glancing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD), it was found that the Si QD size decreases with increases in O/Si ratio. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum varies with the O/Si ratio in band position, shape and intensity. In addition, it was observed that the absorption edge blue-shifts with increases in the O/Si ratio. The change in the absorption edge is consistent with strengthening quantum confinement effects in Si QDs, as indicated by TEM and GIXRD. The optical properties were also investigated by 2D photoluminescence excitation (2D-PLE) and lifetime measurements. The origin of emission and absorption is discussed based on the absorption, PL, 2D-PLE and decay time measurements.

Enhanced photoluminescence stability of CdS nanocrystals through a zinc acetate reagent.

In this study, the role of a zinc acetate precursor in improving the luminescence stability of purple-emitting CdS nanocrystals is investigated. The oleate-capped core of CdS nanocrystals exhibits intense photodarkening under prolonged UV excitation. From the results of photoluminescence experiments, we can observe that photobleaching is responsible for the degradation of temporal stability, i.e., decline in photoluminescence intensity. Herein, we demonstrate that by adding zinc acetate to the synthesis solution, one can enhance the photoluminescence stability by the complete suppression of the bleaching processes of nanocrystals. We can distinguish between the effects caused by zinc ions and those caused by acetate ligands. Acetate ligands improve the photoluminescence stability of the core of CdS nanocrystals. However, only when zinc acetate is used, the PL stability can be conserved at high excitation power. Simultaneously, we have studied the influence of zinc cations and acetate ligands on the kinetics of nanocrystal growth. The presented results underline the importance of short surface capping ligands and zinc cations in CdS nanocrystal synthesis. This study exhibits a new advantage of exploiting zinc acetate reagents in one-pot nanocrystal synthesis.

On the nature of the stretched exponential photoluminescence decay for silicon nanocrystals.

The influence of hydrogen rate on optical properties of silicon nanocrystals deposited by sputtering method was studied by means of time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy as well as transmission and reflection measurements. It was found that photoluminescence decay is strongly non-single exponential and can be described by the stretched exponential function. It was also shown that effective decay rate probability density function may be recovered by means of Stehfest algorithm. Moreover, it was proposed that the observed broadening of obtained decay rate distributions reflects the disorder in the samples.