Enhancement of electroluminescence from embedded Si quantum dots/SiO 2 multilayers film by localized-surface-plasmon and surface roughening

Abstract

In this paper, we prepared a novel structure to enhance the electroluminescence intensity from Si quantum dots/SiO 2 multilayers. An amorphous Si/SiO 2 multilayer film was fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on a Pt nanoparticle (NP)-coated Si nanopillar array substrate. By thermal annealing, an embedded Si quantum dot (QDs)/SiO 2 multilayer film was obtained. The result shows that electroluminescence intensity was significantly enhanced. And, the turn-on voltage of the luminescent device was reduced to 3â €‰V. The enhancement of the light emission is due to the resonance coupling between the localized-surface-plasmon (LSP) of Pt NPs and the band-gap emission of Si QDs/SiO 2 multilayers. The other factors were the improved absorption of excitation light and the increase of light extraction ratio by surface roughening structures. These excellent characteristics are promising for silicon-based light-emitting applications.