Features of the formation of silicon nanocrystals upon the annealing of SiO2 layers implanted with Si ions

The effect of annealing on the ion-beam synthesis of silicon nanocrystals in Si layers was investigated by low-frequency Raman scattering (RS). The occurrence of crystal nuclei in a matrix of glass results in an additional contribution to density of the acoustic vibrational states associated with the surface vibrational modes of nanocrytals. The low-frequency RS caused by interaction of light with acoustic vibration modes of nanoparticles is an effective method of research. The low-frequency Raman spectra show that the samples do not have a smooth distribution of nanoparticle size, but have two specific sizes of nanoparticles, 3 and 6 nm.