Evidence of energy transfer from Si agglomerates to Er ions in aluminosilicate glass thin layers

Abstract

This paper shows evidence of the possible excitation of Er ions in Si-rich aluminosilicate glass layers deposited by magnetron sputtering through an energy transfer from Si nanoagglomerates formed after annealing at 450 °C. The intensity of the Er emission was found unaffected by the change of the excitation line from resonant to nonresonant over a certain range of wavelengths. The time decay dynamics have been also determined using the 476.5-nm-off-resonant excitation. The lifetime values were found to range between 2 and 4.1 ms, while the effective excitation cross section reaches ∼4×10−6cm2, nearly 4 orders of magnitude higher than its counterpart for the direct excitation of Er3+ ions. These results enhance the potential use of aluminosilicate glasses for the fabrication of planar optical amplifiers.