Bright Visible Luminescence in Silica Nanoparticles

International audience; We demonstrate that a porous film of silica nanoparticles emits a bright visible luminescence associated with defects stabilized by oxygen chemisorption at oxygen deficient center sites. Time-resolved spectra excited by a tunable laser allow us to distinguish the luminescence at 1.99 eV, characteristic of the nonbridging oxygen hole center (NBOHC) (Si-O)3 Si-O*, and a fast and a slow emission: the first (lifetime τ ≈ 25 ns) is peaked at 2.27 eV with an excitation spectrum centered at 5.5 eV; the second (τ ≈ 7.5 μs) is peaked at 2.41 eV and is excited around 3.2 and 5.2 eV. Reaction in an air atmosphere leads to the disappearance of the NBOHC luminescence and of the …