Identification of the luminescence center of porous silicon under low temperature thermal oxidation

Abstract

AbstractThe relationship between chemical states and optical properties for porous silicon (PS) under initial oxidation by heating at low temperatures (150, 200, 250 °C) in air was investigated using an infrared (IR) spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The measurements in the IR region show that the IR absorption peaks for the Si-H stretching band (2050-2150 cm−1) change with appearance of the Si-O-Si-H stretching band (2100-2300 cm−1) when the thermal oxidation time is increased. On the other hand, the peak in the PL spectrum shows a blue shift from 820 nm to 710 nm with the oxidation time. The observed blue shift of the PL spectrum is due to the decrease in the initial PL peak intensity at 820 nm and the increase at 710 nm. Moreover, the peak intensities in the PL spectra at 820 nm and 710 nm have clear relationship to the amounts of the Si-H bonds and Si-O-Si-H bonds, respectively, as a function of the oxidation time.These results indicate that luminescence center (LC) for as-prepared PS is ascribed to complexes including Si-H bonds. Also the LC for oxidized PS under the oxidation process at low temperatures is ascribed to complexes including Si-O-Si-H bonds covering the inner surface of PS.