Origin of photoluminescence peaks in Ge–SiO₂ thin films

Ge–SiO2 thin films were prepared by the RF magnetron sputtering technique on p–Si substrates from a Ge–SiO2 composite target. The asdeposited films were annealed in the temperature range of 300–10000C under nitrogen ambience. The structure of films was evaluated by X–ray diffraction, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy. Results show that the content of Ge and its oxides in thefilms change with increasing annealing temperature (Ta), the photoluminescence (PL) characteristics are closely dependent on the contents of Ge and its oxides in SiO2 matrix. The dependence observed strongly suggests that the PL peak at 394 nm is related to the existenceof GeO and 580 nm to that of Ge nanocrystal (nc-Ge) in the films. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.