White luminescence emission from silicon implanted germanium

Germanium crystals were implanted with low-energy and high-dose silicon ions. The implantation led to amorphization of a near-surface layer due to the formation of many adatoms and vacancies. Adatoms can be absorbed in germanium by the amorphous matrix faster than vacancies. The excess of vacancies and their ability to cluster resulted in formation of a porous structure beneath the surface. Pores of different sizes and depths were observed experimentally. A subsequent thermal annealing was carried out at 973 K in order to repair the damage due to the implantation. The annealing resulted, among other things, in oxidation of the pores. Visible white luminescence was observed for the as-implanted samples at the 325 nm excitation wavelength; the photoluminescence intensity increased after the annealing. The optical properties were attributed to the combined effects of different defects and the formation of germanium oxides with oxygen deficiencies. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.