Influence of oxygen on light emission from amorphous silicon nanoclusters

Surface effects, in particular oxygen passivation, are known to have drastic influence on emission spectra of semiconductor nanoclusters. The goal of this work was to obtain light emission from amorphous silicon nanoclusters by means of oxygen passivation. Granulated films of amorphous silicon nanoclusters were fabricated by the laser electrodispersion technique, which allows obtaining nanoclusters of uniform sizes. Two methods were applied in order to incorporate oxygen into the films, and both result in improvement of the luminescent properties of the films. The role of oxygen passivation as well as the effect of thermal annealing is considered. (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)