Microstructure-induced novel white photoluminescence from rapid-thermal-annealed two-layer Si/C on Si(1 0 0) with nanocomposite Si, SiC and C nanocrystals

A novel broad visible photoluminescence (PL) material has been demonstrated from rapid-thermal-annealed two-layer Si/C films on Si(1 0 0). The asymmetric broad PL peak covered wavelengths of 350–750 nm. The wide visible PL spectrum can be deconvoluted into four bands of blue (∼420 nm), green (∼490 nm), green-yellow (∼550 nm) and orange (∼650 nm) emission, corresponding to emission from SiC nanocrystals, sp2 carbon clusters, c-SiC nanoparticles and Si nanocrystals, respectively. The detailed mechanism of broad photoluminescence was proposed in terms of microstructure evolution.