Visible photoluminescence from germanium-implanted silicon oxynitride films after annealing under hydrostatic pressure

New experiments are reported which explore the influence of the hydrostatic pressure during post-implantation annealing on the photoluminescence (PL) from silicon oxynitride layers (SiOxNy, x = 0.25, y = 1) implanted with Ge ions. It is shown that the use of a hydrostatic pressure during heat treat ment results in an enhancement of the PL intensity by an order of magnitude compared with that arising from anneals carried out at atmospheric pressur e. The observed increase in the PL intensity is explained in terms of the e nhanced formation of radiative recombination centers within metastable-phas e regions of the implanted silicon oxynitride. The nature of these centers is believed to be associated with the equivalent to Si-Si equivalent to cen ter and defect complexes incorporating Ge atoms (e.g. equivalent to Si-Ge e quivalent to or equivalent to Ge-Ge equivalent to centers).