On the origin of the 1.5 μm luminescence in ion beam synthesized β-FeSi2

Abstract
In this letter we present photoluminescence results on β‐FeSi2/Si using excitation energies above and below the silicon band gap. These results show that the luminescence emission observed at 1.5 μm can be firmly attributed to band edge related emission from the β‐FeSi2. This result confirms the potential of β‐FeSi2 as a strong contender for a silicon compatible optoelectronics technology that matches the conventional optical fiber transmission wavelength at 1.5 μm.