Silicon nanowire hot electron electroluminescence

This paper investigates the avalanche electroluminescence characteristics of pn junctions formed in silicon nanowires fabricated in a silicon-on-insula*tor (SOI) technology. Since carriers are confined to the nanowires, it is possible to study the effect of electric field strength on device performance while the current density and carrier concentrations are kept constant. This is achieved by varying the nanowire length while keeping the bias current constant, eventually driving the pn junction into the reach-through bias condition. It is observed that photon emission for photon energies higher than 1.2 eV increases when the nanowire length is reduced, while photon emission with energies less than 1.2 eV decreases. The higher electric field in the nanowire at shorter nanowire lengths enhances the high-energy photon emission and attenuates the low energy photon emission.