Time-resolved synchrotron radiation excited optical luminescence: light-emission properties of silicon-based nanostructures.

The recent advances in the study of light emission from matter induced by synchrotron radiation: X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) in the energy domain and time-resolved X-ray excited optical luminescence (TRXEOL) are described. The development of these element (absorption edge) selective, synchrotron X-ray photons in, optical photons out techniques with time gating coincide with advances in third-generation, insertion device based, synchrotron light sources. Electron bunches circulating in a storage ring emit very bright, widely energy tunable, short light pulses (<100 ps), which are used as the excitation source for investigation of light-emitting materials. Luminescence from silicon nanostructures (porous silicon, silicon nanowires, and Si-CdSe heterostructures) is used to illustrate the applicability of these techniques and their great potential in future applications.