For the development of photonic integrated circuits, it is mandatory to implement light sources on a Si-on-insulator (SOI) platform. However, point defects in the Si matrix and, e.g., at the Si/SiO₂ interface act as nonradiative recombination channels, drastically limiting the performance of Si-based light emitters. In this Letter, we study how these defects can be healed by applying an advanced hydrogenation process, recently developed in photovoltaic research for the passivation of performance-limiting defects in Si solar cells. Upon hydrogenation, we observe an increase in the room temperature photoluminescence (PL) yield by a factor of more than three for defect-enhanced quantum dots (DEQDs) grown on float-zone Si substrates, revealing the potential of this technique to passivate detrimental defects. For DEQDs grown using SOI substrates, the PL yield enhancement even exceeds a factor of four, which we attribute to the additional passivation of defects originating from the substrate. The results for SOI substrates are of particular interest due to their relevance for future photonic integrated circuits.

中文翻译：

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在Si量子点上的Ge上应用先进的氢化工艺以增强发光

为了开发光子集成电路，必须在绝缘体上硅（SOI）平台上实现光源。然而，在Si基体中以及例如在Si / SiO ₂处存在点缺陷。界面充当非辐射复合通道，极大地限制了硅基发光体的性能。在这封信中，我们研究了如何通过应用先进的氢化工艺来修复这些缺陷，这种氢化工艺是最近在光伏研究中开发的，用于钝化Si太阳能电池中性能受限的缺陷。氢化后，对于在浮区Si衬底上生长的缺陷增强量子点（DEQD），我们观察到室温光致发光（PL）产量增加​​了三倍以上，揭示了该技术钝化有害缺陷的潜力。对于使用SOI衬底生长的DEQD，PL产量提高甚至超过了四倍，这归因于源于衬底的缺陷的额外钝化。