Optical properties of passivated Si nanocrystals and SiOx nanostructures

Thin films of Si nanoclusters passivated with oxygen or hydrogen, with an average size of a few nanometers, have been synthesized by thermal vaporization of Si in an Ar buffer gas, followed by subsequent exposure to oxygen or atomic hydrogen. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction revealed that these nanoclusters were crystalline. However, during synthesis, if oxygen was the buffer gas, a network of amorphous Si oxide nanostructures (an-SiOx) with occasional embedded Si dots was formed. Ail samples showed strong infrared and/or visible photoluminescence (PL) with varying decay times from nanoseconds to microseconds depending on synthesis conditions. Absorption in the Si cores for surface passivated Si nanocrystals (nc-Si), but mainly in oxygen related defect centers for an-SiOx, was observed by photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. The visible components of PL spectra were noted to blueshift and broaden as the size of the nc-Si was reduced. There were differences in PL spectra for hydrogen and oxygen passivated nc-Si. Many common PL properties between oxygen passivated nc-Si and an-SiOx were observed. Our data can be explained by a model involving absorption between quantum confined states in the Si cores and emission for which the decay times are very sensitive to surface and/or interface states. The emission could involve a simple band-to-band recombination mechanism within the Si cores. The combined evidence of all of our experimental results suggests, however, that emission between surface or interface states is a more likely mechanism.