Evolution with annealing treatments of the size of silicon nanocrystallites embedded in a SiNx matrix and correlation with optical properties

Amorphous silicon nitride alloys have been prepared by reactive evaporation of silicon under a flow of nitrogen ions. Photoluminescence in the visible domain can be observed in these alloys after annealing treatments. We have particularly studied the influence of the annealing time at 950 °C on the evolution of the photoluminescence, in correlation with the structural characterization performed by X-ray photoemission spectrometry, grazing-angle X-ray diffraction, infrared absorption spectrometry and Raman spectrometry.