Surface plasmon enhanced photoluminescence in amorphous silicon carbide films by adjusting Ag island film sizes

Ag island films with different sizes have been deposited on hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (α -SiC:H) films, and the influences of Ag island films on the optical properties of the α -SiC:H films are investigated. Atomic force microscope images show that Ag nanoislands are formed after Ag coating, and the size of the Ag islands increase with increasing Ag deposition time. The extinction spectra indicate that two resonance absorption peaks which correspond to out-of-plane and in-plane surface plasmon modes of the Ag island films are obtained, and the resonance peak shifts toward longer wavelength with increasing Ag island size. The photoluminescence (PL) enhancement or quenching depends on the size of Ag islands, and PL enhancement by 1.6 times on the main PL band is obtained when the sputtering time is 10 min. Analyses show that the influence of surface plasmons on the PL of α-SiC:H is determined by the competition between the scattering and absorption of Ag islands, and PL enhancement is obtained when scattering is the main interaction between the Ag islands and incident light.