Interfacial dislocation networks were formed in silicon by direct bonding technology. Cathodoluminescence and deep level transient spectroscopy measurements verified that the D1 luminescence at 1.5μm was associated with carrier transitions via a dislocation-related deep level at 0.35eV. Both the experiment and theoretical calculations demonstrated that application of an external bias voltage on the bonding interface increased the majority carrier density at this deep level, thereby enhancing the local dislocation-related luminescence. However, beyond a critical voltage, corresponding to saturation of the majority carrier occupancy, the luminescence intensity decreases, due to the reduction in minority carrier density.

Modulation of 1.5μm Dislocation-Related Luminescence Emitted from a Direct Silicon Bonded Interface by External Bias. X.Yu, L.Song, D.Yang, M.Kittler, G.A.Rozgonyi: Applied Physics Letters, 2010, 96[21], 211120