Cathodoluminescence from implanted and anodized polycrystalline silicon films

Abstract

Luminescence emission of LPCVD polycrystalline silicon films has been studied by cathodoluminescence (CL) in the scanning electron microscope. As-deposited films show visible luminescence with dominant blue band. The relative intensity of blue emission is enhanced by implantation and by slight anodization treatments. Our investigations are consistent with previous PL results and indicate that the origin of blue emission is related to quantum confinement effects. On the other hand, the effect of annealing in these samples is a reduction of the CL signal that could be related to the increase of the nanocrystals size.