Erbium and silicon were dual implanted into thermally grown SiO2 film on Si (110) substrates, followed by thermal treatment at 700–1200 °C for 30 min. The microstructure was studied by transmission electron microscope and x-ray diffraction. When the implanted films were annealed at T > 900 °C, the silicon nanocrystals (nc-Si) enwrapped by amorphous silicon (a-Si) could be observed. The thermal quenching behavior at λ = 1.535 μm and its relation with the annealling temperature were also investigated. With increasing annealing temperature, the portion of a-Si and the thermal quenching both decreased. Efficient luminescence from Er ions and weak intensity thermal quenching were obtained from the sample annealed at 1100 °C. The role of a-Si in non-radiative processes at T > 100 K is discussed.
Bright red luminescence emission of macroporous honeycomb-like Eu3+ ion-doped ZnO nanoparticles developed by gel-combustion technique