Blue-emitting b-SiC fabricated by annealing C60 coupled on porous silicon

C60 molecules were chemically coupled in the pores of porous Si through a coupling agent and then coated with a layer of Si, and followed by N2 annealing. X-ray diffraction results indicate that the fabricated samples contain b-SiC particles which may exist in the pores, in addition to Si, SiO2, and graphite. The photoluminescence ~PL! spectra show an asymmetrical broadband, which can be Gaussian divided into two bands at 380 ~3.26 eV! and 454 ~2.73 eV! nm. Spectral analyses and the experimental results from infrared spectroscopy and PL excitation measurements suggest that the 380 nm PL band is related to oxygen-vacancy defects in the SiO2 matrix, whereas the blue PL band is closely connected with the b-SiC particles. Our experiments provide a way for fabricating stable blue-emitting b-SiC materials. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. @S0003-6951~00!02435-9#