Published in

The Electrochemical Society, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, 1(5), p. R3059-R3066, 2015

DOI: 10.1149/2.0081601jss

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Quantum Confined Intense Red Luminescence from Large Area Monolithic Arrays of Mesoporous and Nanocrystal-Decorated Silicon Nanowires for Luminescent Devices

Journal article published in 2015 by Colm O'Dwyer ORCID, William McSweeney, Gillian Collins
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We report intense red luminescence from mesoporous n+-Si(100) nanowires (NWs) and nanocrystal-decorated p-Si NWs fabricated using electroless metal assisted chemical (MAC) etching. n+-Si NWs are composed of a labyrinthine network of silicon nanocrystals in a random mesoporous structure. p-type Si(100) NWs exhibit solid core structure, with a surface roughness that contains surfacebound nanocrystals. Both mesoporous n+-Si NWs and rough, solid p-Si NWs exhibit red luminescence at ∼1.7 and ∼1.8 eV, respectively. Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements indicated long (tens of μs) radiative recombination lifetimes. The red luminescence is visible with the naked eye and the red light is most intense from mesoporous n+-Si NWs, which exhibit a red-shift in the emission maximum to 1.76 eV at 100 K. The red PL frommonolithic arrays of p-type NWs with nanocrystal-decorated rough surfaces is comparatively weak, but originates from the surface bound nanocrystals. Significant PL intensity increase is found during excitation for mesoporous NWs. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy identifies a stoichiometric SiO2 on the rough p-Si NWs with a SiOx species at the NWsurface. No distinct oxide is found on the mesoporous NWs. The analysis confirms that long life-time PL emission arises from quantum confinement from internal nanoscale crystallites, and oxidized surface-bound crystallites, on n+- and p-Si NWs respectively.