Optical properties of silicon nanocrystals

The purpose of the paper is to survey the experimental work which has been carried out towards detailed understanding of the basic optical properties of silicon nanocrystals. We would like to demonstrate that ail general expectations for the behaviour of electronic states confined inside nanocrystals are well fulfilled and emphasize the specifics of indirect band-gap nanocrystals. We show that despite a strong confinement regime the optical properties of Si nanocrystals are very similar to those of bulk crystalline Si. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.