Hydrogen passivation of self-assembled Ge/Si quantum dots

Abstract

We studied the effect of hydrogen plasma treatment on room-temperature photoluminescence of self-assembled Ge/Si quantum dots by varying temperature and duration of treatment. Hydrogen plasma exposure at for 30 min was found to result in the improvement in the radiative efficiency of the Ge quantum dots by one order of magnitude. The enhancement of the photoluminescence intensity is thought to be due to the passivation of nonradiative centers located nearby or inside the dots via formation of Si–H bonds. Infrared absorption spectroscopy was used to correlate photoluminescence results.