Microscopic Photoluminescence Spectroscopy on Silicon

This work offers an approach to obtain and interpret quantitative data on silicon by innovating the field of micro-spectroscopy in the theoretical, methodical and technical regime.
By introducing the time domain into micro-spectroscopy on silicon, a conceptual advance was achieved: the immediacy of approaching the charge carrier lifetime within a transient decay proves to be a robust and reliable technique. The sensible interpretation of data acquired with this approach becomes feasible due to a thorough theoretical treatment of the charge carrier dynamics taking place in a transient configuration. The elaborated 'intensity weighted' formalism reveals to be of importance not only for the specific approach of time resolved micro-spectroscopy on silicon, but for any means deducing a quantity from a non-uniform distribution of the particles investigated.
The implementation of the proposed techniques necessitated an experimental advance in time resolved spectroscopy on silicon. The use of single photon counting is demonstrated to be of distinct potential for the purpose of lifetime spectroscopy, offering both a high spatial resolution to a high sensitivity when combined with confocal microscopy.