Codoping n- and p-Type Impurities in Colloidal Silicon Nanocrystals: Controlling Luminescence Energy from below Bulk Band Gap to Visible Range

We present a novel synthesis of ligand-free colloidal silicon nanocrystals (Si-NCs) that exhibits efficient photoluminescence (PL) in a wide energy range (0.85–1.8 eV) overcoming the bulk Si band gap limitation (1.12 eV). The key technology to achieve the wide-range controllable PL is the formation of donor and acceptor states in the band gap of Si-NCs by simultaneous doping of n- and p-type impurities. The colloidal Si-NCs are very stable in an ordinary laboratory atmosphere for more than a year. Furthermore, the PL spectra are very stable and are not at all affected even when the colloids are drop-cast on a substrate and dried in air. The engineering of the all-inorganic colloidal Si-NC and its optical data reported here are important steps for Si-based optoelectronic and biological applications.