Silicon light emissions from boron implant-induced defect engineering

We studied the electroluminescence of boron-implanted p-n junction silicon light emitting-diodes (Si LEDs) engineered with the implant-induced extended defects of different types. By varying the post implant annealing conditions to tune the extended defects and by using plan-view transmission electron microscopy to identify them, we found that {1 1 3} defects along Si〈1 1 0〉 are the ones that result in strong silicon light emission of the p-n junction Si LEDs other than {1 1 1} perfect prismatic and {1 1 1} faulted Frank dislocation loops. The electroluminescence peak intensity at about 1.1 eV of {1 1 3} defect-engineered Si LEDs is about twenty-five times higher than that of dislocation defect-engineered Si LEDs.