Correlation between structure and nonradiative recombination process in silicon nanocrystallites

Abstract. We prepared silicon nanocrystalltes (nc-Si) by pulsed laser ablation (PLA) in helium and hydrogen gas atmosphere and discussed effects of size and hydrogen on nonradiative recombination process. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity did not increase with decreasing defect density but increased with hydrogen density. This means that the effect of hydrogenation on PL efficiency is not termination of dangling bonds. We proposed a model that defects in nc-Si do not effectively act as nonradiative center. We pointed out the structural flexibility of nc-Si reduce nonradiative recombination path through defects in nc-Si. 1