UV and blue light emission from SiC nanoclusters in annealed amorphous SiC alloys

Abstract Photoluminescence characteristics of hydrogenated amorphous SiC thin films prepared with various gas ratio R = [CH 4 ]/[SiH 4 ] were investigated. Red light emission (600–800 nm) was observed at room temperature from as-deposited samples. The changes of chemical bonding configurations and structures of amorphous SiC alloys were monitored before and after thermal annealing at 500 °C. An intense UV and blue light emission (300–500 nm) can be obtained from annealed SiC films prepared with R > 10. Raman and FT-IR absorption measurements demonstrated the formation and enhancement of 4H-SiC clusters in annealed films which may results in the UV and blue light emission from annealed SiC samples.