Formation of a nanocomposite from plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition multilayer structures

Structural and optical properties of size controlled Si nanocrystals in Si3N4 matrix: The nature of photoluminescence peak shift

“…19 Then, Scardera et al compared 1000 C, 1100 C, and 1150 C for SRN/Si 3 N 4 multilayers and found an almost 3-fold enhancement of the PL intensity when 1150 C instead of 1100 C was used. 20 In addition, the authors also reported the crystallization of the Si 3 N 4 matrix at 1150 C. 20,21 As will be explained below this contradicts entirely with our observations. Another work that can be used as comparison to our results is the paper by Hartel et al, where the advantage of using an annealing temperature of 1150 C was shown for SiO x N y /SiO 2 SLs.…”

“…23). As already mentioned above, no signature for Si 3 N 4 crystallization in the superlattice samples was observed, and, moreover, the bulk Si 3 N 4 film did not even crystallize at 1200 C. This observation disagrees with results reported by Scardera et al 21 The persistence of the Si 3 N 4 in its amorphous state even at highest annealing temperatures is highly beneficial for the Si NCs. An amorphous matrix (a-Si 3 N 4 ) easily forms a smooth interface around the nanocrystalline Si core.…”

The effects of annealing temperature on the photoluminescence from silicon nitride multilayer structures

“…At 1150 1C the silicon peaks are significantly sharper and several a-Si 3 N 4 and b-Si 3 N 4 peaks are identified. A study on the formation of this Si-Si 3 N 4 nanocomposite is presented elsewhere [22]. Peak broadening analysis for the 1150 1C case suggests nanocrystal sizes of $10 nm for silicon and $20 nm for both a-and b-Si 3 N 4 .…”

“…The significant increase in PL intensity at 1150 1C is also consistent with the mitigation of defect states associated with any amorphous silicon nitride via crystallization. The Si-Si 3 N 4 nanocomposite formed at 1150 1C is made up of relatively large nanocrystals (410 nm) with no remaining amorphous nitride [22]. The mechanism responsible for the observed PL from this composite is unclear.…”

Influence of film structure on gas barrier properties of SiOxNy films

“…On the other hand, the RBM is characterized by tetrahedral bonds wherein O and N atoms adjoin Si due to the four fold coordination and the model takes a Si-O-N network type structure shown in the tetrahedral arrangement of SiO ν N 4 − ν (ν = 0,1,2,3,4). In this study, the FT-IR band corresponding to Si 3 N 4 , which is about 840 cm −1 for the asymmetric N-Si stretching mode [28], was not identified (Fig. 6).…”