Formation of photoluminescent properties inherent to silicon quantum dots

The analysis of original works devoted to preparation and investigation of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) films containing Si quantum dots (QDs) that exhibit photoluminescence (PL) within the range 1.4 – 3.2 eV at room temperature is presented. Thin films were prepared by pulse laser deposition (PLD). Offered by authors doping these nc-Si films with gold in the growing process provided passivation of Si dangling bonds (DB) and some increase in the forbidden gap width of a barrier layer. Demonstrated are possibilities to explain and control stationary and kinetic characteristics of visible PL in the framework of the quantum-dimensional model as well as radiative exciton annihilation with taking into account Si nanocrystals (NCs) size distribution pronounced in PL features.