Controlled erbium incorporation and photoluminescence of Er-doped Y2O3

Abstract

A high concentration of erbium doping was achieved in Y2O3 thin films on Si (100) by depositing Y2O3 alternatively with Er2O3 using radical-enhanced atomic layer deposition (ALD). Specifically, the erbium doping level was controlled by varying the ratio of Y2O3:Er2O3 cycles during deposition, and a 10:5 ratio yielded ∼9at.% erbium incorporation in Y2O3, confirmed by the compositional analysis using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Room-temperature photoluminescence was observed in a 320-Å Er-doped (9 at. %) Y2O3 film deposited at 350 °C. This result is very promising, since the film was fairly thin and no annealing at high temperature was needed to activate the erbium ions. This suggests that radical-enhanced ALD was able to preserve the optically active trivalent state of the erbium ion from its precursor state. The effective absorption cross section for Er3+ ions incorporated in Y2O3 was estimated to be on the order of 10−18cm2, about three orders of magnitude larger than the direct optical absorption cross section reported for Er3+ ions in a stoichiometric SiO2 host. These results validate Y2O3 as a promising Er3+ host material and demonstrate that radical-enhanced ALD is a viable technique for synthesizing these materials.