Optical and structural investigation on the energy transfer in a multicomponent glass co-doped with Si nanoaggregates an
- PDF / 1,113,618 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 68 Downloads / 137 Views
L1.8.1
Optical and structural investigation on the energy transfer in a multicomponent glass co-doped with Si nanoaggregates and Er3+ ions Francesco Enrichi1, Giovanni Mattei1, Cinzia Sada1, Enrico Trave1, Domenico Pacifici2, Giorgia Franzò2, Francesco Priolo2, Fabio Iacona3, Michel Prassas4, Mauro Falconieri5, Elisabetta Borsella6 1 INFM, Dip. Fisica, Università di Padova, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy 2 INFM-MATIS, Dip. Fisica e Astron., Univ. Catania, via S. Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy 3 CNR-IMM, Stradale Primosole 50, I-95121 Catania, Italy 4 Adv. Mat. for Photonics, Corning SA, 7 bis Avenue de Vilvins B.P. No. 3, Avon, France 5 ENEA, via Anguillarese 301, 00060 Casaccia (Roma), Italy 6 ENEA, via E. Fermi 45, 00044 Frascati (Roma), Italy
ABSTRACT The enhancement of the Er3+ ions photoluminescence (PL) emission at 1.54 µm in a Si and Er co-implanted aluminosilicate glass is investigated in details. Post-implantation annealing has been performed to recover the damage induced by the implantation process and to promote Si aggregation. It is shown that 1h treatment in N2 atmosphere is not sufficient to induce Si precipitation for the investigated temperatures, up to 500°C. Nevertheless, the most intense Er3+ PL emission at 1.54 µm is achieved at 400°C. Such emission has been investigated by pumping in and out of resonance. The results suggest that good energy transfer mediators could be small Si aggregates and not only crystalline clusters. The effective excitation cross section of Er3+ ions has been measured in the best performing sample yielding a value of ~ 2 x 10-16 cm2, many orders of magnitude higher than the direct absorption cross section of Er3+ ions: about 10-21 cm2 in this glass. The structural and optical properties of this material are discussed and compared to those found for a standard silica substrate. INTRODUCTION Erbium doped materials are of great interest in optoelectronic technology due to their Er3+ intra4f emission at 1.54 µm [1], a standard wavelength for telecommunications since it coincides with the low-loss window of commonly used optical fibers. One of the major difficulties to overcome to realize a planar amplifier is the small cross section for Er excitation (typically ~ 10-21cm2). That’s why a high Er concentration and an enhancement of Er pumping efficiency are required. For the first aspect, the use of multicomponent glasses can be a good solution with respect to silica because they are characterized by a lower Er clustering behavior [2, 3]. For the second aspect, the increase of Er3+ pumping efficiency has been observed by incorporating Si nanocrystals in the glass [4-7]. The enhancement was attributed to an energy transfer process from the Si-nc to Er3+ ions. In this work we present an investigation of such an energy transfer mechanism in an aluminosilicate glass coimplanted with Si and Er, in relation to the structural properties of the material. A post-implantation annealing has been performed to recover the damage left over by the implantation process, to promote Si nuc
Data Loading...
