C. Savall et al., CORRELATIONS BETWEEN ESR AND PHOTOLUMINESCENCE IN SLIGHTLY HYDROGENATED SILICON-NITRIDE, Journal of physics. D, Applied physics, 28(3), 1995, pp. 565-570
The electronic properties of slightly hydrogenated silicon nitride pre
pared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition are studied by ele
ctron spin resonance and photoluminescence. We show that the detection
of the nitrogen dangling bond, after thermal annealing followed by an
ultraviolet irradiation, critically depends on the composition, as ha
s already been observed in strongly hydrogenated materials. Moreover,
correlations are established between the appearance of the dangling bo
nd and the photoluminescence efficiency, suggesting that an electronic
state associated with a nitrogen dangling bond could be a radiative c
entre.