Ultraviolet-visible light photoluminescence induced by stacking faults in 3C-SiC nanowires

The relationship between stacking faults and optical properties in 3C-SiC nanowires is reported in this paper. 3C-SiC nanowires prepared at 900 °C have high density stacking faults. The stacking faults cause a change in the Si-C atom stacking sequence and form nanosegments of 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC in the 3C-SiC matrix. The mixture of polytypes leads to a shift in the peaks and the addition of peaks in both Raman spectra and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The Raman peaks are centered at 785 cm^-1 and at 935 cm^-1 and correspond to the transverse optic mode and the longitudinal optic mode of 3C-SiC, respectively. The PL peaks are blueshifted and the emissions are in the ultraviolet-visible light band.