Enhancement of the intensity of violet and green photoluminescence from Ge+ ion-implanted SiOxNy films caused by hydrostatic pressure during annealing

New experiments are reported to explore the influence of hydrostatic pressu re during post-implantation annealing on the photoluminescence (PL) from si licon oxynitride layers (SiOxNy, x = 0.25, y = 1) implanted with Ge+ ions. It is shown that this treatment results in an enhancement of the PL intensi ty by an order of magnitude, The observed increase in the PL intensity is e xplained in terms of the enhanced formation of radiative recombination cent ers in the implanted silicon oxynitride. The nature of these centers is ass ociated with silicon-silicon bond in silicon dioxide network (drop Si-Si dr op center) and defect complexes incorporating Ge atoms (e,g., drop Si-Ge dr op or drop Ge-Ge drop centers). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights r eserved.