Erbium Doped Semiconductor Thin Films Prepared by Rf Magnetron Sputtering
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ERBIUM DOPED SEMICONDUCTOR THIN FILMS PREPARED BY RF MAGNETRON SPUTTERING HONG KOO KIM a), CHENG CHUNG LI a), XIAO MING FANG b), JAMES SOLOMON c), GERALD NYKOLAK d), AND PHILIPPE C. BECKER d) a)University of Pittsburgh, Department of Electrical Engineering, Pittsburgh, PA 15261 b)Microtronics Associates, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 c)University of Dayton, Research Center, OH 45469-0167 d)AT&T, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974.
ABSTRACT Highly Er-doped (- 1020 atoms/cm3) silicon and silica films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering. Erbium was doped into the host material by co-sputtering technique. Deposited films (0.5 - 1.2 Am thick) were characterized by photoluminescence (PL), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), and fluorescence decay measurements. Er-doped silica glass films show a strong, room-temperature luminescence at 1.54 Asm wavelength. In contrast, Er-doped silicon films show a weak luminescence at room temperature. However, a big enhancement in the Er 3 + luminescence was observed after a proper annealing, for example, 900 0C for 30 to 120 min in air ambient, resulting in the luminescence intensities comparable with that of the Er-doped silica films. This enhancement is attributed to the oxygen incorporation into the Si host film during the annealing, thus forming an Er-doped oxide layer on top of the film. The result suggests that Er-O bonding plays important role in forming optically active erbium ions. Erdoped, three-component silicate glass (Si0 2 + A120 3 + MgO) films were also sputter deposited to investigate the dependence of Er3" luminescence on the host material's composition. Even stronger luminescence was observed from the Er-doped, three component silicate glass films compared with the Er-doped Si0 2 films. INTRODUCTION Erbium, when incorporated as a trivalent ion, shows an optical transition at 1.5 jim, coinciding with the low-loss window of standard optical telecommunications silica fiber. Erdoped fiber amplifiers with gain on the order of 30 dB have been reported. So far work has concentrated on fiber devices, but planar waveguide devices are of great interest for integrated optoelectronic circuits. In planar waveguide technology, integration of an optical amplifier on the same substrate with other components, such as semiconductor lasers, modulators, switches, beam steerers, or detectors is attractive. The performance of Er-doped optical amplifiers will be determined mainly by the two fundamental parameters: a lifetime of the metastable state and the amount of active Er"÷ ions incorporated into the host material. A long lifetime of the metastable state will permit the required high-population inversions to be obtained under steady-state conditions using modest pump powers [1]. It has been reported that lifetimes on the order of 10 ms have been measured with Er-doped silicate glass fibers and Er-implanted silicon dioxide materials. The maximum amount of Er"÷ ions that can be incorporated into the host material without showing a concentration quenching problem is an important fa
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