Improvement in photoluminescence efficiency of SiO2 films containing Si nanocrystals by P doping: An electron spin resonance study

Abstract

SiO 2 and phosphosilicate glass (PSG) films containing Si nanocrystals (nc-Si) as small as a few nanometers were studied by electron spin resonance (ESR) and photoluminescence (PL), and the correlation between the two measurements was examined. It is shown that the incorporation of nc-Si in SiO2 results in the drastic increase in the ESR signal; the signal is assigned to the Si dangling bonds at the interfaces between nc-Si and matrices (Pb centers). The ESR signal becomes weaker by doping P into SiO2 matrices, i.e., by using PSG as matrices. By increasing the P concentration, the ESR signal decreases further. By decreasing the ESR signal, the low-energy PL peak at 0.9 eV decreases, while the band-edge PL at 1.4 eV increases. These results suggest that the 0.9 eV peak is related to Pb centers, and that the decrease in the density of the Pb centers by P doping brings about an improvement in the band-edge PL efficiency of nc-Si.