Microstructure and emission properties of Si nanograins and Er-doped silica films obtained by reactive magnetron co-sputtering

✍ Scribed by P. Singh; F. Gourbilleau; C. Dufour; M. Levalois; J. Vicens; R. Rizk; P. Pellegrino; C. Garcia; R.Ferré i Tomàs; B. Garrido

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 340 KB
• Volume: 105
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-5107
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mseb.2003.08.049

✦ Synopsis

Erbium and silicon co-doped silica films have been fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering. A correlation is made between the microstructure monitored by the hydrogen rate r H in the plasma and the photoluminescence properties. The erbium emission at 1.54 m is enhanced by the increase of r H while no emission due to the silicon nanograins is observed. An explanation is given by the microstructure revealed by Raman spectroscopy. Increasing r H values lead to the deposition of increasingly numerous silicon nanograins whose size decreases.

The assumption is made that the nanograins absorb the laser pumping light which creates electron-hole pairs. The energy resulting from their recombination is supposed to be transferred efficiently to the erbium ions.