Green luminescence from Si1−xCx nanoparticles synthesized by laser annealing of Si nanoparticles and C60 thin films

Photoluminescence property of the nanoparticles synthesized by laser annealing of Si nanoparticles and C60 thin films, which were fabricated by pulsed laser ablation, was investigated. C60 thin films were deposited on two types of substrates, which were Si (p-type 1 1 1) and sapphire (R-plane). The C60 thin films were verified to have a far smoother surface than that of films produced by the conventional evaporation method. The roughness of the C60 thin film was about 0.38 nm of RMS. Then Si nanoparticles were fabricated on the C60 thin film. The Si nanoparticles deposited at He pressure of 0.2 Torr were about 60 Å in height. We observed a green photoluminescence spectrum from the Si/C60 multilayer films after laser annealing. Raman data revealed that this green photoluminescence was generated from the Si1−xCx particles, which were produced in the reaction of the Si nanoparticles with the C60 via laser annealing.