Luminescence blinking of a Si quantum dot in a SiO2 shell

• The phenomenon of on-off luminescence intermittency - blinking - in silicon nanocrystals was studied using a single-dot microphotoluminescence technique. From recordings of the luminescence intensity trace, on- and off-time distributions were extracted revealing exponential behavior, as expected for systems with blinking of a purely random nature. The corresponding switching rates for on-off and off-on processes exhibit different dependence on the excitation intensity. While the on-off switching rate grows quadratically with the excitation, the inverse process is nearly pumping power independent. Experimental findings are interpreted in terms of a dot "charging" model, where a carrier may become trapped in the surrounding matrix due to thermal and Auger-assisted processes. Observed blinking kinetics appear to be different from that of porous silicon particles.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Den kondenserade materiens fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Condensed Matter Physics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

silicon

silicon dioxide

analytic method

article

comparative study

crystal structure

kinetics

luminescence

mathematical model

photoluminescence

quantum dot

recording

Condensed matter physics

Kondenserade materiens fysik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)