Tunable light emission and decaying process of photoluminescence from a nanostructured Si-in-SiNx film

Strong photoluminescence (PL) covering the green-violet band was measured at room temperature in an as-deposited amorphous Si-in-SiN_x film, which was prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on cold (below 60 °C) Si(1 0 0) wafer. With an increase in photon energy of excitation, the PL shifts its peak position from 510 to 416 nm at yet-comparable intensities, thus allowing an energy-selected excitation in practical application. Also, a time-resolved analysis was performed for the emissions at various wavelengths, which showed a decay time shorter than 1.0 ns. These results indicate that the nanostructured Si-in-SiN_x can be a promising candidate material for the fabrication of silicon-based optical interconnections and switches.