Evaluation on Crystal and Optical Properties of AlN:Er Prepared by RF magnetron sputtering method
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0955-I15-03
Evaluation on Crystal and Optical Properties of AlN:Er Prepared by RF magnetron sputtering method Shin-ichiro Uekusa, Takahiko Ohno, Tomoyuki Arai, and Hiroshi Miura Science and Technology, Meiji University, A816 1-1-1 Higashimita Tama-ku, Kawasaki-shi, 214-8571, Japan
ABSTRACT The rare earth Er that is rare earth element causes luminescence at 1540 nm, which is a low loss transmission window in silica-based fibers used in optical communications. Moreover, it is known that the temperature quenching of the luminescence of Er becomes smaller with the wide band gap of the host material. We report on the photoluminescence (PL) characteristic and X-ray diffraction (XRD) of AlN:Er thin films which are deposited by RF reactive magnetron cosputtering method. All the thin films were deposited by RF reactive magnetron co-sputtering method from a 99.999 % Al target and 99.99 % Er chips in a nitrogen gas (99.99995 %) atmosphere. The thin films were achieved with a discharge power of 250 W in a total pressure of 5.0×10-3 Torr, and the deposition times were one hour. After the deposited, these samples were annealed for 30 minutes in the temperature range from 400 to 900℃ in a nitrogen gas (99.999 %) atmosphere with an infrared lamp heater. PL spectra of AlN:Er were measured using the 325 nm line of a He-Cd laser at 15 K. Consequently, we observed PL spectra around 1500 nm. The strong luminescence of peak wavelength at 1538 nm is based on the intra-4f emitting centers of Er. We report systematically the experimental results of PL and XRD.
INTRODUCTION In a lot of rare earth, especially, Er exhibits luminescence at 1540 nm which overlaps the minimum loss region of silica-based fibers used in optical communications. This luminescence emission is due to the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 electronic transition of the Er3+ ions [1-3]. The main problems limiting the performance of current Er doped semiconductor devices are temperature quenching of the luminescence, poor luminescence efficiency, and low incorporation of optically active Er3+ ions [4-5]. As several possible solutions, it is given to dope light elements such as nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon with the Er, and to use the material with a wide band gap as the host semiconductor [6-7]. Consequently, it is consider that AlN which is a wide band gap (6.2 eV) Ⅲ-Ⅴ compound semiconductors with high values on thermal conductivity, chemical and thermal stability, refractive index and breakdown dielectric strength is considered as the host semiconductor [8-10]. In this work, we report on the photoluminescence (PL) characteristic and X-ray diffraction (XRD) of AlN:Er thin films which are deposited by RF reactive magnetron cosputtering method.
EXPERIMENT All AlN:Er thin films were deposited on p-type Si (111) substrates by RF reactive magnetron co-sputtering method from a 99.999 % Al target and 99.99 % Er chips in a nitrogen gas (99.99995 %) atmosphere. The sputtering chamber was evacuated to a pressure of 6.0×10-7 Torr with an oil diffusion pump before introducing the nitrogen gas. The
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