Intensely photoluminescent pseudo-amorphous SiliconOxyCarboNitride polymer-ceramic hybrids

SilconOxyCarboNitrides (SiCNO), made from thermal treatments of highly cross-linked silicon, nitrogen, and oxygen containing polymers, exhibit intense luminescence that is broadly distributed over wavelengths of 500-800 nm. The intensity is sensitive to the composition, and especially to the heat-treatment temperature (T-HT) of these new materials. The absorbance increases, and thus the brightness of the emission dims, as T-HT rises. The phenomenology suggests the presence of two, spatially and energetically separated, molecular complexes: one that absorbs and another that produces photoluminescence. The SiCNO are an entirely new class of high-temperature materials that can be molecularly tailored for optical device applications.