Light-emitting Si nanostructures formed in Si-rich SiO2 by pulsed annealing

Formation of Si-nanocrystals hase been achieved under the influence of intense light pulses of 20 ms and 1 s duration. In this case the Si surface has not been observed to melt, and therefore the SiO2 layer has not been heated above 1400 °C. Comparison of the Si-nc formation rate and the estimates of the diffusion-limited growth yields diffusivity of the excess Si in SiO2 that are substantially larger than the values obtained in experiments using stationary annealing. The discrepancies have been explained by the occurrence of a transient mechanism of rapid growth at the start of the pulsed annealing.