The formation of light emitting cerium silicates in cerium-doped silicon oxides

Abstract

Cerium-doped silicon oxides with cerium concentrations of up to 0.9 at. % were deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Bright cerium related photoluminescence, easily seen even under room lighting conditions, was observed from the films and found to be sensitive to film composition and annealing temperature. The film containing 0.9 at. % Ce subjected to anneal in N2 at 1200 °C for 3 h showed the most intense cerium-related emission, easily visible under bright room lighting conditions. This is attributed to the formation of cerium silicate [Ce2Si2O7 or Ce4.667 (SiO4)3O], the presence of which was confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The authors sincerely thank Dr. Carla Miner (Group IV Semiconductor Inc.) for providing unpublished luminescence intensity data, and acknowledge W. Lennard and J. Hendriks at the University of Western Ontario, and J. Garrett, G. Pearson, J. Huang, F. Pearson, and H. Zhang at McMaster University for their technical support. This work has been cofunded by the Ontario Photonics Consortium (OPC), the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), the Centre for Photonics Fabrication Research (CPFR), and the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovation (CIPI). Financial and technical support from Group IV Semiconductor Inc. (Kanata, Ontario), Johnsen-Ultravac (Burlington, Ontario), and the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy (CCEM) is gratefully acknowledged.