Correlation between the nanoscale structure and the optical properties of Ce-doped SiO1.5 thin films

Cerium doped SiOx (0 < x < 2) thin films have emerged as promising materials for future Si-based blue light emitting devices. The optical properties of these films are strongly dependent on the nanoscale structure such as the spatial distribution of the Ce atoms. These issues have remained difficult to observe in practice by conventional techniques. In this work, we propose to use atom probe tomography which has emerged as a unique technique that is able to provide information about the chemical composition of the films together with a 3D map indicating the position of each atom from a specimen. Ce-doped SiO1.5 thin films fabricated by evaporation were investigated. The effect of Ce-content has been systematically studied in order to correlate the structure at the nanoscale with the optical properties measured by photoluminescence spectroscopy. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.