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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Strong visible luminescence was observed in silicon nitride (SiNx) thin films grown by ion beam sputter deposition (IBSD) using nitrogen ion as a sputtering source. Nitrogen content (x) of the films was controlled by variation of the sputtering N2 ion flux and analysed by in-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Relative sensitivity factors of Si and N peaks could be calculated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the post-annealed samples showed visible luminescence at blue-green region. PL energy showed a blue-shift due to quantum confinement with decreased excess Si and intensity showed a maximum value near x = 1.1. These PL properties are well correlated with the formation of Si nanocrystals (nc-Si). We found that there is a great increase of PL energy of SiNx thin films compared with SiOx thin films, which indicate that the surface state of Si nanocrystals plays an important role to increase PL energy and intensity.