Initial carrier relaxation dynamics in ion-implanted Si nanocrystals: Femtosecond transient absorption study

Transient absorption spectra of ion-implanted Si nanocrystals (NCs) exhibit two picosecond photoinduced absorption features, attributed to carriers in NC quantized states (high-energy band) and Si/SiO2 interface states (low-energy band). Fast relaxation of the high-energy band indicates that populations of quantized states are short lived and decay on the sub-10-ps time scale due to efficient surface trapping. This shows that the red emission in our samples is not due to carriers in quantized states but rather is a result of deactivation of surface traps.