Crystallization kinetics of amorphous Si/SiO2 superlattice structures

Persans, P. D.; Ruppert, A. F.; Abeles, B.

doi:10.1016/0022-3093(88)90123-8

Cited by 60 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…18 -24 Only recently the recrystallization properties of amorphous Si layers with thicknesses larger than 2 nm have been studied in greater details and the most important result is that the crystallization temperature increases with decreasing layer thickness. [25][26][27] In contrast, apart from a few papers, 28,29 the role of ion-beam-induced damage in the structural and optical properties of Si nanocrystals embedded in SiO 2 is not yet clear, and a comprehensive picture of the overall damaging mechanisms in Si nc is still lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Defect production and annealing in ion-irradiated Si nanocrystals

Pacifici¹,

Moreira²,

Franzò³

et al. 2002

Phys. Rev. B

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In this paper the formation and annihilation of defects produced in Si nanocrystals ͑nc͒ by ion-beam irradiation are investigated in detail. The luminescence properties of Si nanocrystals embedded in a SiO 2 matrix were used as a probe of the damaging effects generated by high-energy ion-beam irradiation. Samples have been irradiated with 2 MeV He ϩ , Si ϩ , Ge ϩ , and Au ϩ ions at different doses, in the range between 1ϫ10 9 /cm 2 and 1ϫ10 16 /cm 2 . With increasing the ion dose, the nc-related photoluminescence ͑PL͒ strongly decreases after a critical dose value, which depends on the ion mass. We have observed that the luminescence drop is accompanied by a concomitant lifetime quenching that marks the rise of new nonradiative phenomena, related to the damage left over by the ion beam. It is shown that the lifetime quenching alone cannot quantitatively explain the much stronger PL drop, but the total number of emitting centers has to diminish too. By assuming that a Si nc is damaged when it contains at least one defect inside its volume, we developed a model that relates the fraction of quenched nc to the total defect concentration in the film and to the value of the nc volume itself. This model is shown to be in good agreement with the experimental value of the quenched fraction of Si nc extracted from the luminescence and lifetime measurements. Moreover, we studied the recovery of the damaged Si nc by performing both isochronal and isothermal annealings. It is demonstrated that in slightly damaged Si nc a large variety of defects characterized by activation energies between 1 and 3 eV exists. On the contrary, the recovery of the PL properties of completely amorphized Si nc is characterized by a single activation energy, whose value is 3.4 eV. Actually, this energy is associated with the transition between the amorphous and the crystalline phases of each Si grain. The recrystallization kinetics of Si nanostructures is demonstrated to be very different from that of a bulk system. These data are presented and explained on the basis of the large surface/volume ratio characterizing low-dimensional Si structures.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Defect production and annealing in ion-irradiated Si nanocrystals

Pacifici¹,

Moreira²,

Franzò³

et al. 2002

Phys. Rev. B

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“…It was observed that the SiQDs/SiO 2 system requires relatively high annealing temperatures (1000-1200 • C) than the Si-QDs/SiN x system (800-1000 • C). 35,36 The as-grown films are prepared by varying the substrate temperatures from room temperature to nearly 800 • C (LPCVD) as seen in Table 1. But, mostly, Si-QDs/SiN x films are deposited at low temperature (200-500 • C) and then post-deposition annealing is performed at high temperature.…”

Section: Si-qd Size Control By Varying the Post-deposition Annealing mentioning

confidence: 99%

SILICON QUANTUM DOTS GROWTH IN SiN_x DIELECTRIC: A REVIEW

Panchal

Mathew

et al. 2009

NANO

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This paper reviews research works carried out on silicon quantum dots (Si-QDs) embedded in the silicon nitride (SiN x ) dielectric matrix films with different fabrication techniques and different characteristics. The advantages of SiN x as a dielectric compared to silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) for SiQDs from a device point of view are discussed. Various fabrication techniques along with different optimized deposition conditions are summarized. The typical results of structural characteristics of the films with Raman spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) are discussed. The origin of photoluminescence (PL) from the films and the chemical compositional analysis such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis of the films are also made available in brief. The charge conduction mechanism in the films with metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure, with their electrical characterization like capacitance-voltage (C-V ) and current-voltage (I-V ) measurements are presented.

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“…In our previous work [8], we modified Tagami and Persans' model [9,10] and obtained the quantitative relation between the free energy change and the grain radius of nc-Si.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%