Effect of nitrogen in the photoluminescence of silicon rich oxide films prepared by LPCVD

The photoluminescence of silicon rich oxide films with nitrogen incorporated were studied. The materials were deposited by low pressure chemical vapor deposition adding ammonia during the deposition. Some samples were annealed under different conditions. The films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and photoluminescence (PL). The emission intensity depends on the deposition, nitrogen content and post-treatment parameters. For films without nitrogen, strong red emission with peak at 1.7eV was observed after thermal annealing. For the films with nitrogen, however, blue emission with peak at ∼2.7 eV was observed in the as-deposited films. The emission intensity and position peak can be adjusted by thermal annealing and varying the nitrogen content.