This thesis describes the fabrication and testing of electroluminescent diodes made from silicon subjected to plasma ion implantation. A silicon-compatible, electrically driven light source is desired to increase the speed and efficiency of short-range data transfer in the communications and computing industries. As it is an indirect band gap material, ordinary silicon is too inefficient a light source to be useful for these applications. Past experiments have demonstrated that modifying the structural properties of the crystal can enhance its luminescence properties, and that light ion implantation is capable of achieving this effect. This research investigates the relationship between the ion implantation processing parameters, the post-implantation annealing temperature, and the observable electroluminescence from the resulting silicon diodes.<p>
Prior to the creation of electroluminescent devices, much work was done to improve the efficiency and reliability of the fabrication procedure. A numerical algorithm was devised to analyze Langmuir probe data in order to improve estimates of implanted ion fluence. A new sweeping power supply to drive current to the probe was designed, built, and tested. A custom software package was developed to improve the speed and reliability of plasma ion implantation experiments, and another piece of software was made to facilitate the viewing and analysis of spectra measured from the finished silicon LEDs.<p>
Several dozen silicon diodes were produced from wafers implanted with hydrogen, helium, and deuterium, using a variety of implanted ion doses and post-implantation annealing conditions. One additional device was fabricated out of unimplanted, unannealed silicon. Most devices, including the unimplanted device, were electroluminescent at visible wavelengths to some degree. The intensity and spectrum of light emission from each device were measured. The results suggest that the observed luminescence originated from the native oxide layer on the surface of the ion-implanted silicon, but that the intensity of luminescence could be enhanced with a carefully chosen ion implantation and annealing procedure.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-12172009-135418 |
| Date | 22 December 2009 |
| Creators | Desautels, Phillip Roland |
| Contributors | Klymyshyn, David, Xiao, Chijin, Koustov, Sasha, Tse, John, Hussey, Glenn, Bradley, Michael P. |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-12172009-135418/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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