Effect of deuterium substitution for hydrogen in surface functionalisation of hydrophilic nanosilicon particles on their spectral and dynamic properties

Broadband femtosecond spectroscopy has been used to study two types of hydrophilic silicon nanoparticles: (1) photoluminescent, passivated with deuterium and oxidised in fully deuterated dimethyl sulphoxide, and (2) nonluminescent (control samples having a similar crystalline core), passivated with hydrogen and oxidised in dimethyl sulphoxide. We have found significant differences in ultrafast spectral – temporal induced absorption dynamics between the two types of nanoparticles in the energy range corresponding to their calculated band gap. The observed distinction is due to the considerably higher oxidation rate of silicon on the surface of the deuterated samples in comparison with the undeuterated ones and with the associated increase in the number of photoluminescence centres on the surface of the nanoparticles. In the samples containing self-trapped exciton (STE) energy states responsible for the photoluminescence in the red spectral region, carrier capture at these levels and carrier relaxation to the ground state have characteristic times in the femtosecond range. In the samples free of STE states, excited carriers relax to the conduction band bottom in a characteristic time of several picoseconds.