Silicon-Rich Oxide Obtained by Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition to Develop Silicon Light Sources

Off stoichiometric silicon oxide, also known as silicon-rich oxide (SRO), is a light-emitting material that is compatible with silicon technology; therefore, it is a good candidate to be used as a light source in all-silicon optoelectronic circuits. The SRO obtained by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) has shown the best luminescent properties compared to other techniques. In spite of LPCVD being a simple technique, it is not a simple task to obtain SRO with exact silicon excess in a reliable and repetitive way. In this work, the expertise obtained in our group to obtain SRO by LPCVD with precise variation is presented. Also, the characteristics of this SRO obtained in our group are revised and discussed. It is demonstrated that LPCVD is an excellent technique to obtain single layers and multilayers of nanometric single layers with good characteristics