Increasing the photoluminescence intensity of silicon nitride by forming K and N radioactive centres

Abstract Creating a light emitter to transfer an electrical signal by optical way has a great importance in development of optoelectronics. The silicon nitride films studied by photoluminescence techniques, and determined luminescence is associated with presence of an extended zone of tail states. Defects play the main role in radiative recombination for structures annealed at 600 °C and 1100 °C. Photoluminescence (Pl) intensity of obtained films by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is increased after annealing at 600 °C which are related to increased concentration of defects as a result of broken Si–H and N–H bonds. Due to the formation of N-centers through the breaking of N–H bonds, annealing at 1100 °C led to sharp decrease in the luminescence intensity 5 and 3 times for SiN1.1 and SiN1.5 samples respectively. Replacement of Si-Si bonds by Si-N enhance Eg with increasing stoichiometric parameter, which leads to blue shift edge of photoluminescence maximum. Carbon implantation of silicon nitride films with extra Si obtained by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor deposition at 1x1014 cm‒2, 2x1015 cm‒2, and 1x1016 cm‒2 fluencies, in combination with prolonged annealing at 1100 °C temperature leads to the formation of additional K-centers.