Silicon clusters transferable model

One of the great issues in the field of silicon clusters is to understand their photoluminescence (PL) and finally to tune the PL emission by controlling the synthetic parameters. The last two chapters deal with this problem. In experiments described by F. Huisken et al. in Chapter 22, thin films of size-separated Si nanoparticles were produced by SiLL pyrolysis in a gas-flow reactor and molecular beam apparatus. The PL varies with the size of the crystalline core, in perfect agreement with the quantum confinement model. In order to observe an intense PL, the nanocrystals must be perfectly passivated. In experiments described by S. Veprek and D. Azinovic in Chapter 23, nanocrystalline silicon was prepared by CVD of SiH4 diluted by H2 and post-oxidized for surface passivation. The mechanism of the PL of such samples includes energy transfer to hole centers within the passivated surface. Impurities within the nanocrystalline material are often responsible for erroneous interpretation of PL phenomena. 

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