Hydrogen passivation of Si nanocrystals in silica

This paper explores the effect of hydrogen on the luminescence properties of silicon nanocrystals formed in silica by high-dose ion-implantation and thermal annealing. For samples implanted to low fluence (small nanocrystals), passivation is shown to result in a uniform enhancement of the PL emission for all wavelengths. However, for samples implanted to high fluence, preferential enhancement of the emission from larger nanocrystals is evident, resulting in a red-shift of emission spectra. Both the intensity enhancement and the red-shift are shown to be reversible, with spectra returning to their pre-passivation form when H is removed from the samples by annealing. The luminescence lifetime is also shown to increase after passivation, confirming that defect-containing nanocrystals luminesce.