Résumé
The sol-gel route using triethoxysilane as a precursor has been used to prepare films of Si nanocrystallites. These films were deposited on (001)-oriented silicon substrates either by spin coating deposition of a liquid phase that was further heat-treated under static vacuum (dots embedded in silica gel) or by vapour phase from the thermal decomposition under vacuum of the dried gels (uncapped dots). We address the structural characterisation of these samples and we find that a spontaneous orientation of the crystallites is obtained for heating treatment beyond 800degreesC if the dots are deposited in the vapour phase. The optical properties of dots embedded in silica gel reveal a strong red-orange photoluminescence due to carrier recombination at the dot surface, which is noticeably contaminated by oxygen and hydrogen.