Time-resolved analysis of the white photoluminescence from chemically synthesized SiC_xO_y thin films and nanowires

The study reported herein presents results on the room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) dynamics of chemically synthesized SiC_xO_y≤1.6 (0.19 < x < 0.6) thin films and corresponding nanowire (NW) arrays. The PL decay transients of the SiC_xO_y films/NWs are characterized by fast luminescence decay lifetimes that span in the range of 350-950 ps, as determined from their deconvoluted PL decay spectra and their stretched-exponential recombination behavior. Complementary steady-state PL emission peak position studies for SiC_xO_y thin films with varying C content showed similar characteristics pertaining to the variation of their emission peak position with respect to the excitation photon energy. A nearly monotonic increase in the PL energy emission peak, before reaching an energy plateau, was observed with increasing excitation energy. This behavior suggests that band-tail states, related to C-Si/Si-O-C bonding, play a prominent role in the recombination of photo-generated carriers in SiC_xO_y. Furthermore, the PL lifetime behavior of the SiC_xO_y thin films and their NWs was analyzed with respect to their luminescence emission energy. An emission-energy-dependent lifetime was observed, as a result of the modulation of their band-tail states statistics with varying C content and with the reduced dimensionality of the NWs.