<p>Silicon oxide films (oxygen-rich or silicon-rich) doped with various rare-earth (RE) [cerium (Ce), terbium (Tb), europium (Eu) and erbium (Er)] elements have been by deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (ECR-PECVD). The successful in-situ incorporation of high concentrations of RE elements has been confirmed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), and the optical properties of the films were analyzed by Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy.</p><p> Ce, Tb, Eu and Er related emission was observed from the films with corresponding doping and was found to be sensitive to RE concentration, the presence of Si nanoclusters (Si-ncs) and annealing induced structural evolution. The significant enhancement of Ce^3 + emission in Ce-doped oxygen-rich films under annealing in flowing N2 at 1200 °C was found to be related to the formation of cerium silicate whose presence was confirmed by Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectra and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) images. The observation of intense Tb^3+ emission from Tb-doped oxygen-rich films under nonresonant excitation revealed the presence of indirect excitation processes. The organic ligands introduced from the Tb(tmhd)3 precursor during deposition was considered as the possible sensitizer. The presence of Si-ncs in Ce or Eu-doped silicon-rich films resulted in the quenching of both RE and Si-ncs PL, while in Tb or Er-doped silicon-rich films the coupling between Si-nes and RE ions can excite RE-related emission efficiently. The formation of Si-ncs with sizes of 2-3 nm in Tb-doped silicon-rich films under annealing in flowing N2 at 1100 and 1200 °C was revealed by HR-TEM images.</p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/21769 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Li, Jing |
| Contributors | Mascher, Peter, Engineering Physics |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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