Electroluminescence and electrical properties of nano-crystalline silicon

Nc-Si formed by laser induced chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) showed photoluminescence behavior similar to porous silicon. We have tried to measure electroluminescence signals by applying contacts to the nc-Si made of materials such as Au, ITO, Al. A three-layer structure Me/nc-Si/Me was used and the contacts were found to be unstable during measurements and failed at relative low bias. The total resistance of the structure was very high and therefore the current flow was very low and only few EL measurements could be done at an integral form. The I-V behavior was studied also on nc-Si produced by pulsed laser deposition (PLD).