Dependence of the radiative recombination lifetime upon electric field in silicon quantum dots embedded into SiO2

The influence of the electric field on the radiative recombination of an el ectron-hole pair in a silicon quantum dot is assessed by means of a variati onal calculation. In contrast with III-V devices, in the case of silicon th e use of SiO2 as a matrix makes possible the application of very large elec tric fields, which should indeed have a considerable impact on the radiatio n lifetime. For a distribution of crystallites. a growing electric field sh ould lead to a quenching of the radiative recombination in the larger dots and to a noticeable shift of the spectrum.