We have found that nanoholes are formed on silicon surfaces by the irradiation of electrons whose energy is above 40 keV. We have systematically investigated the size and distribution of nanoholes. In the temperature range from 300 K to 600 K, both the radii of nanohole and the distance of nearest-neighbor nanoholes increase with increasing temperature; the planar density of nanoholes decreased with increasing temperature. The data follow a simple Arrhenius law, suggesting that nanoholes are formed through the diffusion of surface vacancies. The diffusion energy is estimated to be 50 meV. Surface nanoholes are formed even at 4 K at which surface vacancies cannot diffuse thermally, presumably due to athermal diffusion of surface vacancies.

Silicon nanoparticles are formed during pulsed laser ablation under a background atmosphere of Ar gas. In this paper we have characterized the nanoparticles that are backscattered via collisions in the gas phase and redeposited on the target surface. Clustering in an O2/Ar gas atmosphere resulted in the formation of unique nanostructures that photoluminesce in the violet and blue-green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Ablating a (001) Si target in the presence of ultra-high purity (UHP) argon produced Si nanoparticles outside the irradiated region. The mean diameter of these particles decreases from 50 nm to 5 nm with increasing distance from the laser spot. The nanoparticle distribution can be induced to self-organize in linear arrays by simultaneously irradiating the nanoparticles as they deposit.

Exciton-mediated excitation of Er3+ in erbium doped silicon rich silicon oxide (SRSO) is investigated. Er-doped SRSO films were fabricated by electron cyclotron-resonance plasmaenhanced chemical vapor deposition of Er-doped SiOx (x < 2) using SiH4 and O2 as source gases and co-sputtering of Er, followed by an anneal at 950 °C. Very weak visible luminescence from Si nanocluster relative to Er3+ luminescence were observed, indicating a very efficient excitation of Er3+ ions by Si nanoclusters. From detailed modeling and analysis of time-resolved Er3+ luminescence as the excitation duration and excitation power, we conclude that exciton-erbium coupling is dominant over exciton-nanocluster. The results are consistent with the proposal that the luminescent Er3+ ions are located predominantly in the SiO2 layer.

A cold electron emitter has been made from nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) dots. Nc-Si dots are formed in the gas phase by very-high-frequency (VHF) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Electrons, accelerated by electric field, are ballistically transported through nc-Si and SiO2, then extracted into vacuum. Electron emission efficiency is optimized through varying nc-Si film thickness, surface roughness, and by short thermal oxidation.

H-terminated porous silicon (PSi) surfaces were chemically modified with terminal alkenes and aldehydes at high temperature to yield organic monolayers covalently attached to the surface through Si-C and Si-O-C bonds, respectively. Diffuse reflectance infrared Fouriertransform and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies have been used to characterize the surfaces. Derivatized surfaces retain the PSi photoluminescence. Chemography was used to monitor the chemical changes of the PSi surface when exposed to 100% humidity in air. Organic monolayers linked through Si-C bonds are found to be highly resistant and have shown a better protection of the surface against corrosion compared to surfaces that are linked through Si-O-C bonds. The surface functionalized with ethyl undecylenate exhibits an even higher passivation of the surface through the presence of small amounts of oxide, which are induced by traces of water present in this chemical reagent, along with organic molecules attached to the surface.

We show by molecular dynamics simulations, that the radial distribution function of an amorphous material does not change significantly by introducing a considerable volume fraction of nanocrystals. The nanocrystals, embedded in a continuous random network, ensure a certain degree of medium range order in the amorphous material. Our simulations, which are on germanium, show that microcrystals smaller than 2 nm can comprise at least 20 % of the volume without significantly changing the radial distribution function from that of pure continuous random network. By increasing the size of the crystals, without altering the crystal to amorphous volume ratio, the radial distribution changes. The molecular dynamics simulations show that the nanocrystals are unchanged at low temperature. At higher temperature the mobility and critical size of the grains increase, transforming the sub-critical crystalline grains into the surrounding continuous random network matrix.

We report optical and scanning transmission electron microscopy studies of germanium dots grown on silicon. In an attempt to control the self-organized growth process and promote dot size uniformity the dot layers were grown on a 4.5nm Si0.6Ge0.4 alloy template layer. Photoluminescence results indicate the formation of carrier confining Ge rich islands, whilst Raman scattering results indicate the presence of an alloy throughout the structures formed. The samples were studied in the UK high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy facility at Liverpool, UK. Energy dispersive analysis of individual line scans through the sample show that the structures are composed of an alloy throughout with an asymmetric distribution of Germanium in the dots and in the wetting layer close to the dots. We discuss the results in the light of the proposed growth mode for these dots and conclude that attempts to manipulate the composition of these dots during growth may be problematic due to the self-organized nature of their formation.

We use a combination of scanning electron microscopy, laser scanning confocal microscopy and luminescence spectroscopy to correlate the emission properties of anodized porous silicon (PS) with film morphology in samples that have undergone evaporation induced collapse of the underlying porous structure. Several PS samples were investigated as a function of the current density (J) and total etch time, while the total charge (Q) injected per unit area (and the total Si removed) was kept constant during etching. From this data two classes of PS samples emerge. Porous silicon samples produced at high current density have a 3-dimensional pore network with a narrow distribution of blue-green emitting chromophores. In contrast, low current density samples form a 2-dimensional pore network normal to the Si substrate with larger chromophores and exhibit broad red luminescence.

This work describes our initial studies of Er-doped Si nanocrystal/poly(phenylene vinylene) (PPV) composites. Preliminary results have focused on the characterization of these materials via atomic force microscopy (AFM), profilometry, absorption/fluorescence spectroscopies, and current-voltage measurements. A particular point of emphasis here concerns the influence of the Er-doped Si nanocrystals on PPV photoluminescence and carrier transport.

We use Raman spectroscopy to study the size, shape and crystallographic orientation of silicon nanocrystals formed by solid phase crystallization of amorphous Si/SiO2 superlattices (SLs) grown by radio-frequency sputtering. The first and second Raman peaks broadening, their relative positions and intensities indicate the presence of nanoscale Si objects with a degree of disorder (grain boundaries) and strain (Si/SiO2 interfaces). Shapes of Si nanocrystals sandwiched between SiO2 layers strongly influence the Si/SiO2 interface roughness, which is inferred from the intensities of folded acoustic phonon scattering. The averaged crystallographic orientation of Si nanocrystals is determined by polarized Raman analysis. The laterally elongated nanocrystals exhibit <111> preferred crystallographic orientation along the SL axis due to orientation-dependent crystallization rates. These results demonstrate that control over Si nanocrystals structural parameters has been achieved and that solid phase crystallization of nanometer-thick amorphous Si films remains one of the most promising techniques for Si-based nanoelectronic device fabrication.

Initial stages of growth of silicon on dielectric surface proceeds through Volmer-Webber growth mode (through island formation) and coalescence of islands to form a continuous thin film layer. Growth of silicon nanocrystals on dielectric surface can be achieved by controlling the nucleation and growth kinetics of these nanocrystals on the dielectric surface. In this study, we present CVD growth of Si nanocrystals on oxide, oxynitride and nitride surfaces using silane based chemistry. The effect of process conditions such as deposition temperature, precursor flow rate, carrier gas on nanocrystal incubation time, size and density of nanocrystals was studied. The nucleation and growth rate of the silicon nanocrystals is also a strong function of the surface chemistry, surface structure and strain in the dielectric film. We have studied the effect of oxide deposition temperature and surface pretreatments on the nucleation and growth characteristics of the silicon nanocrystals.

A memory device sensitive to a single electron stored in a nanocrystalline Si dot has been synthesized allowing for the study of charge retention lifetime. A 50 nm by 20 nm transistor channel is synthesized by E-beam lithography followed by reactive ion etching of thin (20nm) Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) channel. This small area of the narrow channel allows for the isolation of a single nano-crystalline Si dot and elimination of channel percolation paths around the screening charge. Remote Plasma Enhanced CVD is used to form 6±2nm diameter nc-Si dots in the gas phase from a pulsed SiH4 source. Electrons stored in a dot results in an observed discrete threshold shift of 90 mV. Analysis of lifetime as a function of applied potential and temperature show the dot to be an acceptor site with nearly Poisson lifetime distributions. An observed 1/T2 dependence of lifetime is consistent with a direct tunneling process, thus interface states are not the dominant mechanism for electron storage in this device structure. Median lifetimes are modeled by a direct tunneling process, which is influenced by gate bias and dot size.

The Mo-W-O thin films were deposited by RF reactive sputtering from composite target of W and Mo (20:80 weight ratio). Structural characterisation was carried out by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and the composition of the film was obtained by Rutherford backscattering analysis. The layers were investigated by volt-amperometric technique for electrical and gas-sensing properties. The films were capable of sensing CO. No effect of poisoning of the surface was recorded and recovery of the resistance was complete. A concentration of CO as low as 15 ppm produced a relative variation in the conductance of 390% with response and recovery times of about 2 minutes at a working temperature of 200°C.

This paper describes the fabrication, and structural and electrical characterization of a new, aerosol-nanocrystal floating-gate FET, aimed at non-volatile memory (NVM) applications. This aerosol- nanocrystal NVM device features program/erase characteristics comparable to conventional stacked gate NVM devices, excellent endurance (>105 P/E cycles), and long-term non-volatility in spite of a thin bottom oxide (55-60Å). In addition, a very simple fabrication process makes this aerosol-nanocrystal NVM device a potential candidate for low cost NVM applications.

Capacitance-voltage was investigated for amorphous silicon quantum dots (a-Si QDs) embedded in a silicon nitride as a function of dot size and nitride thickness. a-Sci QDs were grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The electron charging was decreased as the dot size was decreased. These results showed that the conduction band shift is larger than the valence band shift as the dot size decreased and, as a result, electrons are easily discharged in a-Si QDs due to the lower barrier height. For high dot-density-sample, the capacitance-voltage curves were also shifted toward the negative voltage direction when a higher forward bias was applied at forward condition due to the transfer of electrons trapped in the a-Sci QDs from the a-Sci QDs near Si substrate to those near the top metal.

An atomic-scale model of liquid silicon has been cooled from high temperatures down in the temperature range between the amorphous and the crystalline melting temperatures by nanosecond scale molecular dynamics simulations with the Stillinger-Weber potential. Tetrahedrally coordinated sites have been identified, in the supercooled liquids, by using a few structural order parameters. The local structure and the stability of these crystalline-like regions (c-type sites and clusters) have been characterized. These have been regarded as candidates for crystalline embryos.

Low concentration of Si nanoparticles (n-Si) produced by a ball milling method were introduced into a SiO2 matrix by the sol-gel method. These SiO2 sol-gel suspensions were prepared with high water-TEOS ratios. The samples obtained have high silanol concentration as was proved by infrared spectroscopy. The silanol structures of this samples are resistant for temperature as high as 800°C. Raman scattering measurements showed evidence of a photo-oxidation effect of the nSi particles embedded into the SiO2 matrix with high silanol concentration. The nanometric size of the Si particles was computed from Raman scattering measurements. The photo-oxidation effect was observed as a gradual shifting and broadening of the Raman signal due to the reduction of the particle size from 14 to 7 nm.

Three-dimensional opal-silicon composites with both direct (a variable extent of filling of opal voids with silicon) and inverted structures have been synthesized. A structural analysis of these fabricated systems is performed. Reflectance spectra from the (111) surface of the composites are measured within the spectral range 400-900 nm. Observed spectral features are interpreted as a manifestation of the [111] direction photonic band gap that is tunable in position and width in the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges.

In this paper we present a study of the influence of the growth rate and deposition temperature on the growth dynamic of self-assembled Ge/Si(100) islands. By combining AFM and XPS measurements we show that the main effect of rising the deposition temperature is an enhancement of the Ge-Si intermixing. The actual composition of the Ge islands as a function of deposition temperature has been measured in the 450 °C- 850 °C range: the Ge content x in the alloyed epilayer was found to decrease from x=1 to x=0.28. By changing the growth rate at fixed deposition temperature we were also able to modify the island density. The influence of the island density on the island size has been investigated. We found that an increase of the island density from 109 to 2×1010 cm−2 at T=600 °C brings about a change of the mean island size from 85 to 55 nm. This reduction is explained in terms of island-island interaction effects on the growth dynamic.

We report photoluminescence and electroluminescence at room temperature in diodes based on Si/SiO2 multilayers. The multilayers are fabricated by alternating Si and SiO2 layers, whose thickness is, respectively, 2 and 5 nanometers. In photoluminescence, a single band is observed, centered at 800 nm, which is due to electron-hole pair recombination under quantum confinement. On the other hand, in electroluminescence, two bands are reported. The first band is in the infrared spectrum, and is blackbody radiation. The second band is visible, and is originated by relaxation of a single type of electrical carrier (electrons), as suggested by a fast decay time (less than 0.1 µs). Possible mechanisms can be hot-electron relaxation or coupling with surface plasmon-polaritons.