Abstract
We report the photoluminescence (PL) from an ( Er , Ge ) co-doped SiO 2 film deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering in an Ar + O 2 ambience. The sample film was annealed in N 2 for 30 min at different temperatures. The PL intensity increases as the annealing temperature increases from 700 to 1000°C, and drops to very weak after 1100°C annealing. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation shows that there are some Ge -rich nanoparticles precipitated after 700°C annealing, and more clusters precipitated after 1000°C annealing. However, no Ge nanocrystals were found in these films, the diffraction patterns are always halo which indicates that the precipitated clusters are in amorphous states. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates the Ge in the nanoclusters is mostly in an oxidized state and the oxidation state of Er increases with increasing annealing temperature.
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