SiO/sub 2/-nanoparticles enhancing Si band-edge electroluminescence to nearly lasing actions

Electroluminescence (EL) at Si bandgap energy is significantly enhanced with the insertion of SiO/sub 2/ nanoparticles in the oxide layer of the metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) structures on n-type Si. The nanoparticles have a size of 12 nm. The measured EL efficiency is enhanced to be near 10/sup -4/. Furthermore, near-lasing actions like the threshold behavior and resonance modes are observed. The reason is because nanoparticles cause the simultaneous localization of electrons and holes, making the process of the phonon-assisted radiative recombination of electron-hole pairs more like two-particle (exciton-phonon) collision than three-particle (electron-hole-phonon) collision. Thus the probability of radiative recombination increases to enhance EL at Si bandgap energy.