Activation of silicon quantum dots for emission

The emission of silicon quantum dots is weak when their surface is passivated well. Oxygen or nitrogen on the surface of silicon quantum dots can break the passivation to form localized electronic states in the band gap to generate active centers where stronger emission occurs. From this point of view, we can build up radiative matter for emission. Emissions of various wavelengths can be obtained by controlling the surface bonds of silicon quantum dots. Our experimental results demonstrate that annealing is important in the treatment of the activation, and stimulated emissions at about 600 and 700 nm take place on active silicon quantum dots.     

Light emission from silicon nanocrystals: Probing a single quantum dot

Analysis of low-temperature photoluminescence measurements performed on single silicon nanocrystals is presented. The luminescence emission linewidth of Si nanocrystals is found to be less than thermal broadening at low temperature, confirming the atomic-like nature of their energetic states. Beside the main peak the low-temperature spectra reveal a ∼6 meV replica, the origin of which is discussed. For some of the investigated dots, we also observe a ∼60 meV transverse optical (TO) phonon replica. The regular arrangement of individual nanocrystals used in this work enables combined high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and low-temperature photoluminescence characterization of the same single quantum dot.     

Realization of silicon quantum wires by selective chemical etching and thermal oxidation

Ultra-fine silicon quantum wires with SiO₂ boundaries were successfully fabricated by combining SiGe/Si heteroepitaxy, selective chemical etching and subsequent thermal oxidation. The results are observed by scanning electron microscopy. The present method provides a very controllable way to fabricate ultra-fine silicon quantum wires, which is fully compatible with silicon microelectronic technology. As one of the key processes of controlling the lateral dimensions of silicon quantum wires, the wet oxidation of silicon wires has been investigated, self-limiting wet oxidation phenomenon in silicon wires is observed. The characteristic of the oxidation retardation of silicon wires is discussed.     

Saturation of optical transitions in quantum dots and wires of porous silicon

The bleaching bands have been observed in the time-resolved nonlinear transmission spectra of porous silicon. The increase of transmission at discrete frequencies has been attributed to a saturation of optical transitions between the energy levels of electrons and holes spatially confined within quasi-zero-dimensional (quantum dots) and quasi-one-dimensional (quantum wires) nanostructures. The results of independent measurements using transmission electron microscopy have confirmed the existence of quantum dots and wires of corresponding size. The slowed-down energy relaxation from upper to lower levels of size quantization compared with intraband relaxation in the bulk have been observed in the cooled (80K) platelets of porous silicon.     

Simple theoretical analysis of the Fowler-Nordheim field emission from microstructures and quantum wires of optoelectronic materials

We present a simplified theoretical formulation of the Fowler-Nordheim field emission (FNFE) under magnetic quantization and also in quantum wires of optoelectronic materials on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion law in the presence of strong electric field within the framework of k.p formalism taking InAs, InSb, GaAs, Hg_1−xCd_xTe and In_1−xGa_x As_yP_1−y lattice matched to InP as examples. The FNFE exhibits oscillations with inverse quantizing magnetic field and electron concentration due to SdH effect and increases with increasing electric field. For quantum wires the FNFE increases with increasing film thickness due to the existence van-Hove singularity and the magnitude of the quantum jumps are not of same height indicating the signature of the band structure of the material concerned. The appearance of the humps of the respective curves is due to the redistribution of the electrons among the quantized energy levels when the quantum numbers corresponding to the highest occupied level changes from one fixed value to the others. Although the field current varies in various manners with all the variables in all the limiting cases as evident from all the curves, the rates of variations are totally band-structure dependent. Under certain limiting conditions, all the results as derived in this paper get transformed in to well known Fowler-Nordheim formula.     

Optical emission and Raman scattering in modulation-doped gaAs-AlGaAs quantum wires and dots

Magneto-optical properties and resonant Raman spectroscopy of modulation doped GaAs-AlGaAs quantum well wires are reported. Their properties are compared with similar undoped quantum well wires to investigate the many electron effects in nanostructures. In undoped samples, the quantised energy levels observed by luminescence excitation spectroscopy are in good agreement with a particle-in-a-box model. In doped samples, the carrier confinement is explicitly revealed by magneto-luminescence and depolarised resonant Raman scattering. The calculated spectra in a Hartree model are in reasonable agreement with experiment.PACS: 78.66.Fd, 78.30.Fs, 78.55.Cr, 73.20.Dx     

Realization of silicon quantum wires based on Si/SiGe/Si heterostructure

We report on the successful fabrication of silicon quantum wires with SiO2 boundaries on SiGe/Si heterostructures by combining Si/SiGe/Si heteroepitaxy, selective chemical etching, and subsequent thermal oxidation. The observational result of scanning electron microscope is demonstrated. The present method provides a well-controllable way to fabricate silicon quantum wires.     

Secondary ion emission from silicon and silicon oxide

The emission of Si⁺, Si²⁺, Si³⁺, Si₂⁺, SiO⁺ and B⁺ from boron doped silicon has been studied at oxygen partial pressures between 2 × 10^?10 and 2 × 10^?5 Torr. Sputtering was done with 2 to 15 keV argon ions at current densities between 3 and $\text{40}\text{μ}\text{A}\text{cm}{}^2$. The relative importance of the different ionization processes could be deduced from a detailed study of the yield variation at varying bombardment conditions. Comparison with secondary ion emission from silicon dioxide allows a rough determination of the composition of oxygen saturated silicon surfaces.     

硅量子点发光的激活及其物理模型研究

在真空或惰性气体中制备的硅量子点发光很弱,硅量子点表面被氢较好钝化后的发光也不强.硅量子点表面的硅氧键或硅氮键能破坏这种钝化并在带隙中形成局域电子态,在局域电子态对应的激活中心有很强的发光.可以用这种方式构建发光物质,控制硅量子点表面的键合可获得不同波长的发光.在硅量子点的发光激活处理过程中,退火是很重要的环节.对于硅量子点发光激活的机理,本文给出了相应的物理模型.实验证明,在600和700 nm波长附近观察到了激活硅量子点的受激发光,在1500 nm到1600 nm波长范围观察到了激活硅量子点的较强发光.     

Transport in quantum wires

With a brief introduction to one-dimensional channels and conductance quantization in mesoscopic systems, we discuss some recent experimental puzzles in these systems, which include reduction of quantized conductances and an interesting odd-even effect in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field. We then discuss a recent non-homogeneous Luttinger liquid model proposed by us, which addresses and gives an explanation for the reduced conductances and the odd-even effect. We end with a brief summary and discussion of future projects.     

Excitons in quantum wires

This paper deals with excitons in quantum wires. We first study these excitons as the limit of excitons in D dimensions when . In order to do it, we have had to find a new resolution of the hydrogen atom Schrödinger equation: besides the fact that the usual resolution found in textbooks is not valid for D exactly equal to 1, it is, surprisingly enough, inconsistent since it relies on two hypergeometric functions which are not independent for the parameters of physical interest! In a second part, we write down the exact potential felt by the exciton relative motion along the wire in terms of the wire confinement. This allows a quite precise determination of the effective Coulomb potential for this 1D motion, which is of crucial importance to obtain a meaningfull finite value for the exciton ground state energy. In a last part, we study the dependence of the exciton energies on the wire area and anisotropy. While the quantitative results are here given for cylindrica l and rectangular wires with infinite barriers, we show how they can easily be extended to any particular wire shape and barrier height.Received: 5 August 2002, Published online: 23 July 2003PACS: 71.35.-y Excitons and related phenomena - 73.21.Hb Quantum wires