Jung, Yoon-JinYoon, Jong-HwanElliman, R. G.Wilkinson, A. R.2015-10-212015-10-210021-8979http://hdl.handle.net/1885/16010Si nanocrystals embedded in SiO₂films were exposed to an atomic H plasma at different temperatures. Photoluminescence intensity from the nanocrystals increases with increasing exposure time, followed by saturation that depends on the exposure temperature. The saturation level depends on the final exposure temperature and shows no dependence on the thermal history of exposure. This behavior is shown to be consistent with a model in which the steady-state passivation level is determined by a balance between defect passivation and depassivation by H, with the activation energy for the passivationreaction being larger than that for the depassivation reaction.This work was supported by Research Institute for Basic Science at Kangwon National University.4 pageshttp://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0021-8979..."Publishers version/PDF may be used on author's personal website, institutional website or institutional repository" from SHERPA/RoMEO site (as at 22/10/15). Copyright 2008 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3002913Keywords: Activation energy; Hydrogen; Light emission; Luminescence; Nanocrystalline alloys; Nanocrystals; Nanostructured materials; Nanostructures; Photoluminescence; Plasmas; Silicon; Defect passivations; Depassivation; Exposure temperatures; Exposure times; Hydr2008-10-2810.1063/1.30029132016-02-24