Improvement of 1.5 µm Photoluminescence from Reactive Deposition Epitaxy (RDE) Grown β-FeSi 2 Balls in Si by High Temperature Annealing

Abstract

We found that 900°C annealing was a very effective way to improve the 1.5 µm photoluminescence (PL) from β-FeSi₂ balls with about 100 nm diameter grown by reactive deposition epitaxy (RDE) and embedded in Si crystals by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of the 1.5 µm PL peak was about 1/4 of that of the as-grown sample, after annealing at 900°C for 14 h. This was attributed to improvement of the β-FeSi₂ quality. The FWHM of an X-ray diffraction β-FeSi₂ (800) peak decreased from 0.24° to 0.14° by the annealing.