Shift in room-temperature photoluminescence of low-fluence Si+-implanted SiO2 films subjected to rapid thermal annealing

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the effect of the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in nitrogen flow on photoluminescence (PL) of SiO₂ films implanted by different doses of Si⁺ ions. Room-temperature PL from 400-nm-thick SiO₂ films implanted to a dose of 3×10¹⁶ cm^?2 shifted from 2.1 to 1.7 eV upon increasing RTA temperature (950–1150 °C) and duration (5–20 s). The reported approach of implanting silicon into SiO₂ films followed by RTA may be effective for tuning Si-based photonic devices.