High efficiency silicon visible light emitter using silicon nanocrystals in silicon nitride matrix and transparent doping layer

Semiconductor electronics is strongly dominated by silicon technology. However silicon technology does not allow easy integration with optical component since silicon is a poor light emitter. The unique properties of Si nanocrystals (nc-Si) can be exploited to fabricate Si-based light source. We will introduce a quantum confinement effect in the nc-Si embedded in a silicon nitride formed by PECVD. The band gap of the nc-Si could be controlled from 1.38 to 3.02 eV by decreasing the nanocrystal size. In addition, we will demonstrate a silicon light emitter with a transparent doping layer on nc-Si embedded in silicon nitride active layer by using ITO and n-type wide bandgap semiconducting layer. This light emitter has high external quantum efficiency of 1.6%, which is the highest value ever reported in Si-based visible light emitters.