Photoluminescence from Si nanocrystals dispersed in phosphosilicate glass thin films: Improvement of photoluminescence efficiency

Photoluminescence (PL) from Si nanocrystals (nc-Si) dispersed in phosphosilicate glass thin films was studied. It was found that, at room temperature, the 1.4 eV PL due to the recombination of electron-hole pairs in nc-Si becomes intense as the P concentration increases. At low temperatures, an additional peak related to defects at interfaces between nc-Si and the matrix was observed at about 0.9 eV. In contrast to the 1.4 eV peak, the 0.9 eV peak became weaker with increasing P concentration and almost disappeared at a P concentration of 1.5 mol %. These results suggest that the number of interface defects decreases with increasing P concentration and that this decrease leads to an improvement of the band-edge PL of nc-Si.