It was noted that, when amorphous films were irradiated using a KrF excimer laser, they exhibited a broad photoluminescence which was centered around 2.4eV. The photoluminescence intensity gradually decreased and the photoluminescence peak energy shifted to lower energy with an increase in the dose of implanted Ar+ ions. This implied that the photoluminescence consisted of 2 components, with peak energies at 2.66 and 2.15eV, and that implantation-induced defects such as vacancies were not the photoluminescence centers. The photoluminescence intensity was found to decrease if the film was thermally annealed, whereas the decreased photoluminescence intensity of ion-implanted films recovered during annealing. It was concluded that the defects which were generated by H release or bond-breaking acted as non-radiative recombination centers that quenched the photoluminescence.

Effects of Ion Implantation and Thermal Annealing on Photoluminescence in Amorphous Silicon Nitride. K.S.Seol, T.Futami, T.Watanabe, Y.Ohki, M.Takiyama: Journal of Applied Physics, 1999, 85[9], 6746-50