Mechanism of light emission in low energy ion implanted silicon

A silicon wafer implanted with a single low energy (42 keV) silicon ion beam results in strong luminescence at room temperature. The implantation results in the formation of various luminescent defect centers within the crystalline and polymorphous regions of the wafer. The resulting luminescence centers (LC) are mapped using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). The emission from the ion-implanted wafer shows multiple PL peaks ranging from the UV to the visible; these emissions originate from bound excitonic states in crystal defects and interfacial states between crystalline/amorphous silicon and impurities within the wafer. The LCs are created from defects and impurities within the wafer and not from nanoparticles.