The decay of the optical phonon into the two phonons of smaller energy is calculated for Si nanocrystals. The rate of the process is in the range of 1 to 10 ps. Such anharmonic phonon decay may control the energy relaxation rate of excited carriers in Si/SiO2 nanocrystals. Relevance of the phonon decay to the experimentally observed hot carrier photoluminescence is discussed.
@article{arxiv.1304.1623,
title = {Phonon decay in silicon nanocrystals},
author = {A. A. Prokofiev and A. N. Poddubny and I. N. Yassievich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1304.1623},
year = {2013}
}