Enhanced photoluminescence emission from two-dimensional silicon photonic crystal nanocavities

We present a temperature dependent photoluminescence study of silicon optical nanocavities formed by introducing point defects into two-dimensional photonic crystals. In addition to the prominent TO phonon assisted transition from crystalline silicon at ~1.10 eV we observe a broad defect band luminescence from ~1.05-1.09 eV. Spatially resolved spectroscopy demonstrates that this defect band is present only in the region where air-holes have been etched during the fabrication process. Detectable emission from the cavity mode persists up to room-temperature, in strong contrast the background emission vanishes for T > 150 K. An Ahrrenius type analysis of the temperature dependence of the luminescence signal recorded either in-resonance with the cavity mode, or weakly detuned, suggests that the higher temperature stability may arise from an enhanced internal quantum efficiency due to the Purcell-effect.