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Nanocrystalline materials exhibit properties that can differ substantiallyfrom those of their single crystal counterparts. As such, they provide ways toenhance and optimise their functionality for devices and applications. Here wereport on the optical, mechanical and thermal properties of nanocrystallinesilicon probed by means of optomechanical nanobeams to extract information ofthe dynamics of optical absorption, mechanical losses, heat generation anddissipation. The optomechanical nanobeams are fabricated using nanocrystallinefilms prepared by annealing amorphous silicon layers at different temperatures.The resulting crystallite sizes and the stress in the films can be controlledby the annealing temperature and time and, consequently, the properties of thefilms can be tuned relatively freely, as demonstrated here by means of electronmicroscopy and Raman scattering. We show that the nanocrystallite size and thevolume fraction of the grain boundaries play a key role in the dissipationrates through non-linear optical and thermal processes. Promising optical(13000) and mechanical (1700) quality factors were found in the optomechanicalcavity realised in the nanocrystalline Si resulting from annealing at 950 C.The enhanced absorption and recombination rates via the intra-gap states andthe reduced thermal conductivity boost the potential to exploit thesenon-linear effects in applications, including NEMS, phonon lasing andchaos-based devices.

Properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon Probed by Optomechanics