Shift in room-temperature photoluminescence of low-fluence Si-implanted SiO films subjected to rapid thermal annealing.

We experimentally demonstrate the effect of the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in nitrogen flow on photoluminescence (PL) of SiO films implanted by different doses of Si ions. Room-temperature PL from 400-nm-thick SiO films implanted to a dose of 3×10 cm shifted from 2.1 to 1.7 eV upon increasing RTA temperature (950-1150 °C) and duration (5-20 s). The reported approach of implanting silicon into SiO films followed by RTA may be effective for tuning Si-based photonic devices.