Light-emitting defects formed in GeO/SiO2 heterostructures with assistance of swift heavy ions

Abstract Germanium suboxide films and GeO/SiO 2 multilayer heterostructures deposited onto Si(001) substrates using evaporation in high vacuum were modified using irradiation of 167 MeV Xe +26 ions with fluences varying from 10 11 to 10 13 cm −2 . According to Raman spectroscopy data, the swift heavy ion irradiation does not lead to the expected decomposition of germanium suboxide in germanium nanoclusters and GeO 2 . Infrared absorption spectroscopy measurements show that under irradiation the GeO/SiO 2 layers were intermixed with formation of Ge-O-Si bonds. We report strong photoluminescence in the visible range at room temperature, which is most probably due to Ge-related defect-induced radiative transitions. Moreover, a new infrared luminescence band (~0.8 eV) was observed in irradiated structures, which can be related to defects or defects complexes in Ge x Si y O 2 glass.