Optical properties of β-FeSi2 precipitate layers in silicon

Abstract Semiconducting iron disilicide precipitates have been fabricated by ion beam synthesis in silicon. Photoluminescence measurements at 6 K show intense luminescence at 0.8 eV. To investigate the character of the optical transition responsible for the 0.8 eV luminescence, a system for time-dependent luminescence measurements in the near infrared with a time resolution of better than 30 ns and single photon counting capability has been set up. First measurements on our samples showed a photoluminescence decay time of 35 μ s at 20 K, which decreased to 7 μ s at 77 K.