Modeling of Optical Properties in Silicon Nanocrystals

While bulk silicon is a poor emitter of light, silicon nanocrystals are shown to be promising materials for light-emitting devices. Despite all the efforts on the fabrication and modeling of silicon nanostructures, the origin of their light emission is still controversial. In this paper we investigate models that have been proposed for silicon nanostructures. A simple model based on solving the Schrodinger equation for quantum dots for light emission in silicon nanocrystals has been proposed. It is shown that quantum confinement is responsible for luminescence in the red portion of spectrum, while the surface passivants are responsible for emission in the blue and green region of the spectrum. The validity of this modeling has been proven by experimental data.