Properties of Silicon for Photoluminescence

For more than five decades, silicon has dominated the semiconductor industry that supports memory devices, ICs, photovoltaic devices, etc. Photoluminescence (PL) is an attractive silicon characterization technique because it is contactless and provides information on bulk impurities, defects, surface states, optical properties, and doping concentration. It can provide high resolution spectra, generally with the sample at low temperature and room-temperature spectra. The photoluminescence properties of silicon at low temperature are reviewed and discussed in this study. In this paper, silicon bulk PL spectra are shown in multiple peak positions at low temperature. They correspond with various impurities such as In, Al, and Be, phonon interactions, for example, acoustical phonons and optical phonons, different exciton binding energies for boron and phosphorus, dislocation related PL emission peak lines, and oxygen related thermal donor PL emissions.