Abstract
Ultrathin single quantum wells of crystalline silicon (c-Si) confined by SiO2 have been prepared by chemical and thermal processing of silicon-on-insulator wafers. The photoluminescence (PL) produced by these nanometer-thick single wells contains two bands: one exhibits a peak energy of ∼1.8 eV, while the second increases rapidly in peak energy with decreasing c-Si layer thickness. Comparison with theories based on self-consistent first-principles calculations shows that the increase in PL peak energy of the second band is consistent with that predicted for the c-Si energy gap of such wells. It also agrees with the measured band gap variation. The ∼1.8 eV PL band is attributed to the recombination of electron-hole pairs confined at the c-Si/SiO2 interface.
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Acknowledgments
This work is supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada and the Fonds québecois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT) of the Province of Québec. We are indebted to the Réseau québécois de calcul de haute performance (RQCHP) for generous allocations of computer resources. We acknowledge Cannon ELTRAN for providing SOI-Epi wafer.
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Lockwood, D.J., Dharma-wardana, M.W.C., Lu, Z.H. et al. Photoluminescence within Crystalline-Si/SiO2 Single Quantum Wells.. MRS Online Proceedings Library 737, 11 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-737-F1.1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-737-F1.1