Ion beam processing for silicon-based light emission

Despite the tremendous effort in optoelectronics using compound semiconductor materials with narrow and wide bandgaps (GaAs, GaN, etc.) the dream is still continuing to use the key material of microelectronics, silicon, for this purpose. In this paper a review of the impact of ion beam processing on the field of silicon-based light emission is made. Er-doping of silicon as well as ion beam synthesis of Si- and Ge-rich thermally grown SiO₂-layers, and β-FeSi ₂ precipitates in single crystalline silicon are addressed as representative approaches in this emerging field