Short-wavelength photoluminescence of SiO₂ layers implanted with high doses of Si⁺, Ge⁺, and Ar⁺ ions

Abstract

The short-wavelength (400–700 nm) photoluminescence (PL) spectra of SiO₂ layers implanted with Si⁺, Ge⁺, and Ar⁺ ions in the dose range 3.2×10¹⁶–1.2×10¹⁷ cm⁻² are compared. After Ar⁺ implantation an extremely weak luminescence, which vanishes completely after annealing for 30 min at 400 °C or 20 ms at 1050 °C, was observed. After implantation of group-IV elements the luminescence intensities were 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher, and the luminescence remained not only with annealings but it could also increase. The dose and heating dependences of the luminescence show that it is due to the formation of impurity clusters and this process is more likely to be of a percolation than a diffusion character. For both group-IV impurities an intense blue band and a weaker band in the orange part of the spectrum were observed immediately after implantation. The ratio of the excitation and emission energies of the blue luminescence is characteristic of oxygen vacancies in SiO₂; its properties are determined by the direct interaction of group-IV atoms. On this basis it is believed that the centers of blue PL are chains of Si (or Ge) atoms embedded in SiO₂. The orange luminescence remained after annealings only in the case of Si⁺ implantation. This is attributed directly to the nonphase precipitates of Si in the form of strongly developed nanometer-size clusters.