Effect of Si3N4-mediated inversion layer on the electroluminescence properties of silicon nanocrystal superlattices

The achievement of an efficient all-Si electrically-pumped light emitter is a major milestone in present optoelectronics still to be fulfilled. Silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) are an attractive material which, by means of the quantum confinement effect, allow attaining engineered bandgap visible emiss...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: López Vidrier, Julià, Gutsch, Sebastian, Blázquez Gómez, Josep Oriol, Valenta, Jan, Hiller, Daniel, Laube, Jan, Blanco Portals, Javier, López Conesa, Lluís, Estradé Albiol, Sònia, Peiró Martínez, Francisca, Garrido Fernández, Blas, Hernández Márquez, Sergi, Zacharias, Margit
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2018
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/188715
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/188715
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Silici
Nanocristalls
Luminescència
Silicon
Nanocrystals
Luminescence
Description
Summary:The achievement of an efficient all-Si electrically-pumped light emitter is a major milestone in present optoelectronics still to be fulfilled. Silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) are an attractive material which, by means of the quantum confinement effect, allow attaining engineered bandgap visible emission from Si by controlling the NC size. In this work, SiO2-embedded Si NCs are employed as an active layer within a light-emitting device structure. It is demonstrated that the use of an additional thin Si3N4 interlayer within the metal-insulator-semiconductor device design induces an enhanced minority carrier injection from the substrate, which in turn increases the efficiency of sequential carrier injection under pulsed electrical excitation. This results in a substantial increase in the electroluminescence efficiency of the device. Here, the effect of this Si3N4 interlayer on the structural, optical, electrical, and electro-optical properties of a Si NC-based light emitter is reported, and the physics underlying these results is discussed.