Room Temperature 1.6 µm Electroluminescence from a Si-Based Light Emitting Diode with β-FeSi 2 Active Region

Room temperature electroluminescence (EL) was obtained for the first time from a Si-based light emitting diode with semiconducting silicide (β-FeSi 2 ) active region. The peak wavelength was 1.6 µm and it is from β-FeSi 2 balls embedded in a Si p-n junction. An a -axis oriented β-FeSi 2 layer was grown on n + -(001) Si by reaction deposition epitaxy (RDE), then p- and p + -Si layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The β-FeSi 2 aggregated into balls with about 100 nm diameter in this process. The EL intensity increased superlinearly with increase of the injected current density, and reasonable EL was obtained at current density above 10 A/cm 2 , though the photoluminescence (PL) was difficult to be detected at room temperature.