Structure and luminescence properties of silicon and silica-based nanostructured materials

Abstract

Amorphous silica and related silica-based materials have been widely developed in optoelectronics and optical telecommunications technology. Despite comprehensive research for over the decades, the structure and properties of amorphous silica fine particles have not been well understood. We here show that nanometer-sized amorphous silica particles have specific structural and photoluminescent properties that cannot be found in the corresponding bulk materials.