Luminescence of Individual Porous Si Chromophores

Abstract
We spatially isolate and detect the luminescence from individual porous Si nanoparticles at room temperature. Our experiments show a variety of phenomena not previously observed in the emission from porous Si including a distribution of emission wavelengths, resolved vibronic structure, luminescence intermittency, and irreversible photobleaching. Our results indicate that the emission from porous Si nanoparticles originates from excitons in quantum confined Si, and is strongly mediated by the surface of the quantum dot.