Novel two-stage method for the synthesis of silicon quantum dots embedded on ZnO matrix

•A two-stage method for the synthesis of Si QD embedded on ZnO is presented.•An enhanced emission of the ZnO was obtained with the addition of Si quantum dots.•White light emission was produced by the contribution of NBE, DBE, and SQDE lines.•The tuning of the photoluminescence emission for the ZnO was obtained. At the present work, a novel two-stage method for the synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) films with silicon quantum dots embedded (SiQDs-ZnO) is reported. The experimental procedure consisting on ZnO matrix produced by the sol-gel technique and silicon quantum dots (Si-QDs) synthesized by a green synthesis is described. The incorporation of the Si-QDs on the ZnO films was obtained by spin coating followed by a post-deposition air annealing at 400 °C. The XPS results show that the Si-QDs were successfully embedded in the ZnO matrix. The effect of the tunable bandgap (Eg) of the ZnO with the addition of Si-QDs was obtained which is consistent with the Burstein-Moss effect. The enhancement of the photoluminescence (PL) of the ZnO films with the increment of Si content is presented.