Optical and electron paramagnetic resonance study of light-emitting Si+ ion implanted silicon dioxide layers

Abstract

Thermally grown SiO2 on Si substrates implanted with Si+ ions with a dose of 6×1016 cm−2 were studied by the techniques of photoluminescence, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), and low-frequency Raman scattering. Distinct oxygen-vacancy associated defects in SiO2 and nonbridging oxygen hole centers were identified by EPR. The luminescence intensity in the 620 nm range was found to correlate with the number of these defects. The low-frequency Raman scattering technique was used to estimate the average size of the Si nanocrystallites formed after the implantation and thermal annealing at T>1100 °C, which are responsible for the photoluminescence band with a maximum at 740 nm. The intensity of this band can be significantly enhanced by an additional treatment in a low-temperature rf plasma.