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Synthesis of full-visible-spectrum luminescent silicon nanocrystals and the origin of the luminescence

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Abstract

An efficient synthesis route for highly luminescent silicon nanocrystal (Si-nc) films is presented. Si-ncs in the films are synthesized in the gas phase by using an argon-silane radio-frequency dielectric-barrier discharge (RF-DBD) plasma. The size of Si-ncs is well tunable by changing the resident time. The resulting Si-nc films with different oxidation degree exhibit emission across the full visible spectrum. Structural and optical characterization indicates that the red-to-green luminescence from big particles show quantum confinement effect (QCE), while this effect disappears in blue luminescence from small ones. A model is presented to explain this result. In this model, the radiative process in big particles is Band-to-Band recombination, in which surface states have a negligible impact on the QCE, while the blue emission from small Si-ncs is due to the Band-to-Bound recombination, in which surface state plays an important role, resulting in the disappearance of QCE. Additionally, obvious double-exponential decay from midsize particles is observed, in which the two kinds of recombination may coexist.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Educational Committee (Grant No. 2010112) and the Major Program for the Fundamental Research of Hebei, China (Grant No. 12963930D).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding, Hebei Province, 071002, P.R. China

    Wei Yu, Yanmei Xu, Huimin Li, Xiaozhou Zhan & Wanbing Lu

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  1. Wei Yu
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  2. Yanmei Xu
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  3. Huimin Li
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Correspondence to Wei Yu.

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Yu, W., Xu, Y., Li, H. et al. Synthesis of full-visible-spectrum luminescent silicon nanocrystals and the origin of the luminescence. Appl. Phys. A 111, 501–507 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-7556-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-013-7556-z

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