Material structure of two-/three-dimensional Si–C layers fabricated by hot-C ⁺ -ion implantation into Si-on-insulator substrate

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We experimentally studied the material structures of two-/three-dimensional (2D/3D) silicon carbon layers Si 1− Y C Y with Y ≤ 0.25 and 5 ≤ N L ≤ 162 [ N L is the atomic layer number of Si 1− Y C Y )] on buried oxide (BOX), which were fabricated by hot-C + -ion implantation into a (100) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate before an oxidation process. A 2D Si layer was also fabricated as a reference. The C 1s spectrum obtained by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy shows that the implanted C atoms segregate at the oxide interface. Using a scanning transmission electron microscope and a high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscope to observe cross sections of Si 0.75 C 0.25 layers, 2-nm-thick 3C-SiC layers were found be partially formed in the C segregation layer near the BOX interface. At Y > 0.1 and 5 ≤ N L ≤ 162, we observed very strong photoluminescence (PL) emission in the UV/visible regions from a 3C-SiC area and a Si 1− Y C Y area in the C segregation layer, whereas a 2D Si emitted weak PL photons only at N L < 10. Thus, the silicon carbon technique is very promising for Si photonics and bandgap engineering in CMOS.