ИСТИНА

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) has the indirect band gap and hence the efficiency of the interband radiative recombination in c Si is extremely low. This fact limits the possible applications of c-Si in light-emitting optoelectronics. Therefore, a search of novel Si-based materials with efficient light emission is of current importance. In this way a great attention is attracted to silicon nanocrystals (nc-Si), which can emit red, green and even weak blue light when stimulated by light of shorter wavelength. Another prospective way of gaining light from silicon is to use nc-Si systems as an energy donors for erbium ions (Er3+), which thereby can emit light at about 1.5 μm. This wavelength corresponds to a transparency window of fiber-based optical communication systems that is important for possible applications in the optoelectronic devices. Recent investigations, however, revealed that the crystallinity of silicon nanoclusters is not really necessary for the effective sensibilization of the Er3+ ions luminescence. Indeed, amorphous Si nanoclusters (a-Si-ncl) can be used as well to obtain even more intensive Er-related PL. The present work is determined to the comparative study of PL properties of nc Si and a-Si-ncl structures before and after doping with erbium. The dependence of PL characteristics on Si clusters size and Er concentration has been investigated.