Resonant structures based on amorphous silicon suboxide doped with Er 3 + with silicon nanoclusters for an efficient emission at 1550 nm

• Published in: Journal of vacuum science & technology. B, Microelectronics and nanometer structures processing, measurement and phenomena Microelectronics and nanometer structures processing, measurement and phenomena, 2009-11, Vol.27 (6), p.L38-L41
• Main Authors: Figueira, D. S. L., Mustafa, D., Tessler, L. R., Frateschi, N. C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1071-1023; 1520-8567
• DOI: 10.1116/1.3246406

The authors present a resonant approach to enhance 1550 nm emission efficiency of amorphous silicon suboxide doped with Er 3 + ( a - Si O x ⟨ Er ⟩ ) layers with silicon nanoclusters (Si-NC). Our results show an important result toward enabling the use of silicon-based material for active photonic component fabrication. Two distinct techniques were combined to fabricate a structure that allowed increasing approximately 12 times the 1550 nm emission. First, layers of Si O 2 were obtained by conventional wet oxidation and a - Si O x ⟨ Er ⟩ matrix was deposited by reactive rf cosputtering. Second, an extra pump channel ( I 15 ∕ 2 4 to I 9 ∕ 2 4 ) of Er 3 + was created due to Si-NC formation on the same a - Si O x ⟨ Er ⟩ matrix via a hard annealing at 1150 ° C . The Si O 2 and the a - Si O x ⟨ Er ⟩ thicknesses were designed to support resonances near the pumping wavelength ( ∼ 500 nm ) , near the Si-NC emission ( ∼ 800 nm ) and near the a - Si O x ⟨ Er ⟩ emission ( ∼ 1550 nm ) enhancing the optical pumping process.