Structural and photoluminescence studies of erbium‐implanted nanocrystalline silicon thin films

Hydrogenated amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon thin films deposited by hot wire (HW) and radio‐frequency plasma‐enhanced chemical vapour deposition (RF‐PECVD) were erbium‐implanted. Their pre‐implantation structural properties and post‐implantation optical properties were studied and correlated. After 1 h annealing at 150 °C in nitrogen atmosphere only amorphous films showed photoluminescence (PL) activity at 1.54 µm, measured at 5 K. After further annealing at 300 °C for 1 h, all the samples exhibited a sharp PL peak positioned at 1.54 µm, with an FWHM of ∼5 nm. Amorphous films deposited by HW originated a stronger PL peak than corresponding films deposited by RF, while in nanocrystalline films PL emission was much stronger in samples deposited by RF than by HW. There was no noticeable difference in Er 3+ PL activity between films implanted with 1 × 10 14 and 5 × 10 15  atoms cm −2 Er doses.