Photoluminescence (PL) properties of mesoporous silica (MS) samples incorporated with Si or Ge nanocrystals (nc) have been investigated with various excitation powers and post-RTA processes. The analysis of experimental results revealed a superlinear intensity dependence (m = 1.7) in the MS reference sample without nanocrystals, while a sublinear behavior (m = 0.8) is observed for the nc-Si in MS. It thus suggests the same recombination responsible for the luminescence at similar to 2.75 eV for both samples, but different kinetic limitations for the carrier transfer processes. Si nanocrystals play in this case an important role in generating more photo-excited carriers, enhancing the PL intensity. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.