Silicon nanoparticles in thermally annealed thin silicon monoxide films

Effects of post-deposition annealing temperature and time on physical properties of metal-organic decomposed lanthanum cerium oxide thin film

“…7 (e) is not surprising to have Si nanocrystals in the SiO x layer, which was thicker (15 nm) in this work. It was also reported that Si nanocrystals formed in SiO x film upon annealing at 1000 °C for 30 min were having irregular shapes and the average size of the nanocrystals was reported to be 3 nm [45]. In this work, it is anticipated that the Si nanocrystals formed are having the similar size as the reported one [45] due to the same annealing temperature (1000 °C) and closer annealing time (15 minutes This layer is formed probably due to the interaction between the SiO x layer and La x Ce y O z layer.…”

“…8 (a) and (b) where nanocrystals seemed to distribute widely in La x Ce y O z layer. Although the number of Si nanocrystals increases at the expense of SiO x amorphous state with the increment of annealing time, the number is still considerably low [45]. This explained why Si crystalline peaks were not detected by XRD [45].…”

Phase separation in SiOx films annealed under enhanced hydrostatic pressure

“…2b, curve 1). This means that HP applied during the annealing promotes crystallization of silicon nanoparticles in the SiO 2 matrix (compare [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]). …”

“…An origin of the shorter wavelength band is somewhat controversial. According to [4,[8][9][10], this band is related to the emission from amorphous silicon inclusions in the SiO 2 matrix while other authors [11][12][13] have ascribed this emission to various defects present in silicon dioxide. Some authors observed three bands related to the emission from defects and amorphous and crystalline nanoclusters [14].…”

“…In the case of intermediate annealing temperature, the mentioned bands coexist. The longer wavelength emission originates from the presence of silicon nanocrystals [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. An origin of the shorter wavelength band is somewhat controversial.…”