Strong visible electroluminescence from silicon nanocrystals embedded in a silicon carbide film

Journal Article · Mon May 25 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921786· OSTI ID:22402484

Huh, Chul; Kim, Tae-Youb; Ahn, Chang-Geun; Kim, Bong Kyu ^[1]

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1. IT Convergence Technology Research Laboratory, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon 305-700 (Korea, Republic of)

We report the strong visible light emission from silicon (Si) nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in a Si carbide (SiC) film. Compared to Si NC light-emitting diode (LED) by employing the Si nitride (SiN{sub x}) film as a surrounding matrix, the turn-on voltage of the Si NC LED with the SiC film was significantly decreased by 4 V. This was attributed to a smaller barrier height for injecting the electrons into the Si NCs due to a smaller band gap of SiC film than a SiN{sub x} film. The electroluminescence spectra increases with increasing forward voltage, indicating that the electrons are efficiently injected into the Si NCs in the SiC film. The light output power shows a linear increase with increasing forward voltage. The light emission originated from the Si NCs in a SiC film was quite uniform. The power efficiency of the Si NC LED with the SiC film was 1.56 times larger than that of the Si NC LED with the SiN{sub x} film. The Si NCs in a SiC film show unique advantages and are a promising candidate for application in optical devices.

• OSTI ID: 22402484
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 21 Vol. 106; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ELECTROLUMINESCENCE
FILMS
LIGHT EMITTING DIODES
NANOSTRUCTURES
SILICON
SILICON CARBIDES