Luminescent properties of GeOx thin films and GeO/SiO2 heterostructures modified with swift heavy ions

The luminescent and structural properties of GeOx thin films and GeO/SiO2 multilayer heterostructures, irradiated with 167 MeV Xe ions with fluencies up to 1013 cm−2 , were studied. We report strong photoluminescence in visible range at room temperature, which is most probably due to Ge-related defect-induced radiative transitions. And infrared luminescence bands (from ~0.8 eV to ~1.2 eV) were observed in as-deposited and irradiated structures, which can be related to defects or defects complexes in GexSiyO2 glass and partially in Si substrate. It was shown that swift heavy ion irradiation does not lead to the expected phase separation of germanium suboxide into germanium nanoclusters and GeO2, but causes the intermixing of GeO/SiO2 layers with the formation of Ge-O-Si bonds.