Observation of Blue Emission from ECR-CVD Deposited Amorphous Hydrogenated Silicon Carbide

Abstract

ABSTRACTAmorphous hydrogenated silicon carbide (a-Sil-xCx:H) thin films have been deposited by the electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) technique at different microwave powers from 100W to 1000W. The films were characterized in terms of their optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL). Their optical band gap E04 ranged from 3.06eV to 3.54eV and when excited at 363.8nm from an Ar+ ion laser, the PL peak emission energy Epl, was found to range from 2.44eV to 2.79eV, corresponding to green to blue emission. The effects of excitation energy Eex, on Epl, and FWHM of the PL spectra were also investigated. A linear relation between the FWHM and Urbach tail width E0was noted, suggesting that the PL bandwidth is mainly contributed by static disorder. The blue emission observed in these a-S1-x-Cx:H films is promising for their applications in large area flat panel displays.