The structure and photoluminescence of erbium-doped nanocrystalline silicon thin films produced by reactive magnetron sputtering

Nanocrystalline containing Si thin films undoped and doped with erbium were produced by reactive RF sputtering method. Detailed investigations on the complex structure of the films including the analysis of "anatomy" of the films, their chemical composition, nc size and volume fraction, as well as the allocation of SiO and/or SiO2 phases are presented. The correlation between the films microstructure and their photoluminescence properties in visible and 1.54 mum wavelength regions is discussed.