Optical properties of nanocrystalline silicon within silica gel monoliths

Described herein is the incorporation of nanocrystalline silicon nc-Si from porous silicon (PSi) in a silica matrix fabricated by the sol-gel technique that yields highly photoluminescent (PL) and optically transparent monoliths with uniformly distributed nc-Si inclusions or nanoclusters. The sample monoliths were prepared with PSi-derived nanoclusters (PSi-n) with average diameters of 14–45nm. Concentrated samples of PSi-n-exhibited blueshifted orange emission bands with maximum peaks between 600 and 750nm with PL emission intensities ten times stronger than those of the original PSi, while diluted samples exhibited UV to blue (350–450nm) emission bands. The PL quantum yield of the typical PSi-n monoliths was 44% higher than the native PSi. Light absorption measurements showed a linear response to laser powers before the saturation threshold at 80mW. PL bleaching following 3h of constant laser power exposure resulted in 90% reduction of the maximum initial PL. Mechanical and thermal stability properties ...