Structure and luminescence of rare earth-doped silicon oxides studied through their X-ray absorption near edge structure and X-ray excited optical luminescence

The X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) of a set of photoluminescent rare earth (RE) (Tb, Ce) doped silicon oxide (SiOx) thin films, having compositions ranging from O-rich (32% Si) to Si-rich (36% Si), were analyzed at the Si and O K-edges. The results show that luminescence from these materials is correlated with the excitation of O-related energy states, and demonstrate that the composition and bonding structure of the silicon oxide host matrix play an active role in determining the luminescent properties of these materials, although the microstructure of the films may vary from filmto film. © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.