Light Emission from Rare‐Earth Doped Silicon Nanostructures

Rare earth (Tb or Ce)‐doped silicon oxides were deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma‐enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ECR‐PECVD). Silicon nanocrystals (Si‐ncs) were formed in the silicon‐rich films during certain annealing processes. Photoluminescence (PL) properties of the films were found to be highly dependent on the deposition parameters and annealing conditions. We propose that the presence of a novel sensitizer in the …