Ambient erbium luminescence in silicon and silicon-germanium films

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Abstract

Prior studies have shown that photoluminescence from Er3+ impurities in silicon is severely limited at room temperature by non-radiative relaxation and solid solubility, and room temperature emission from Er3+ in oxide-based hosts becomes diminished at high erbium concentrations. This work presents studies of thin films (0·2 μm thick) prepared by vacuum co-evaporation from elemental sources (erbium, silicon and silicon/germanium) followed by vacuum annealing (600°C); materials of this type, which are produced with high Er3+ concentrations, are shown to be capable of yielding strong room temperature photoluminescence. Alloy films of Si-Er-O and Si-Ge-Er-O, containing (20 ± 2) at.% erbium and incorporating (16 ± 2) at.% oxygen (introduced by way of vacuum scavenging reactions), exhibit emission bands with dominant components at 1·51 and 1·54 μm (~0.04-μm overall spectral widths). Results are discussed in terms of erbium-oxygen complex formation and the effects of local randomness on cooperative inter-Er3+ energy transfer among thermal-broadened and local-field Stark-split 4I13/2→4I15/2 transitions. This paper discusses the advantages of scalability and low costs associated with producing optically active silicon-based materials.

Identifier

85159150518 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Emerging Materials Research

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1680/emr.11.00002

e-ISSN

20460155

ISSN

20460147

First Page

17

Last Page

24

Issue

1

Volume

1

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