Thin film preparation of silicon nanocrystals embedded in silicon oxide by sol-gel method

In this paper, nano silicon powders were prepared by grinding technique and subsequently mixed in sol-gel of Tetraethylorthosilicate and ethanol solution. The silicon dioxide films synthesized from sol-gel solution were preliminary studied in the term of optical property as refractive index (n) under varying aging and annealing conditions. We have also determined x-composition of gel-prepared SiO_x films with varying annealing temperature by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurement. The results show that the x-composition increases from 1.26 to 1.49 with a decrease in annealing temperature from 60 °C to 500 °C. The prepared films from precursor of nano-silicon powder suspension were characterized by photoemission spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy in order to obtain more understanding of chemical composition and silicon nano-crystallite quality, respectively. The Raman scattering spectra presented in this study suggest a size effect from occurring spectra broadening and frequency peak which shifts downward from 521 cm^-1.