Abstract

Silicon is at the heart of the microelectronics. Its dominance over other semiconductors is intimately tied to its superior materials and process, and to the tremendous base of technology that has developed around it. A recent trend toward development of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) lies in preparing nc-Si thin films exhibiting strong photoluminescence, based on a quantum size effect (Ali et al. 2002). This technique is expected to have a potential for application to optoelectronics. In addition, as crystallites are decreased in size to the nanoscale level, their electronic and vibrational properties will be modified, then the surface and quantum size effects play an important role. Formation of nc-Si structures has been tried utilizing various techniques: anodic oxidation of crystalline Si, that is, formation of porous Si formation of nc-Si thin films using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), sputtering, evaporation, and ion beam synthesis. Furthermore, nc-Si thin films can be obtained by the thermal crystallization of amorphous Si films or Si-rich oxide films.