Abstract
The paper reports the potentialities of innovative silicon compatible materials for light emitting devices. In particular thin films of Er doped yttrium oxide have been synthesized by a technique totally compatible with ULSI processes. Through the structural characterization, we will verify the high stability of the film and the good dopant dissolution. Moreover, by the investigation of the optical properties, we will demonstrate that the use of this compound is effective to introduce more than 10 21 Er/cm 3 in optically active state, value that cannot be reached in other Si compatible materials. The influence of Er content on the optical properties will be described in details. Moreover, we will propose the introduction of a proper sensitizer for Er, bismuth, in the same thin film. In particular, we will show that the (Er+Bi) co-doped yttrium oxide is a perfect host to overcome another important drawback of Er doped materials that is its low absorption cross section. The influence of Bi and Er contents on optical properties will be extensively discussed along the paper. Through the optimization of ratio between Bi and Er concentrations, high energy transfer efficiency will be reached with simultaneously a consistent increase of the effective Er cross section. A factor of more than three orders of magnitude have been obtained with respect to the direct excitation of Er.
Highlights
In the last decades, the limitations reached by silicon microelectronics brought the scientific community to move towards the field of silicon photonics with the aim to use photons instead of electrons for carrying and processing information inside a Si chip [1, 2]
Despite other rare earth (RE) have been already proposed as Er sensitizers, such as Yb3+ [18], recently the use of optically active metal ions, such as bismuth, as REs sensitizer emitting in the visible wavelength range is reported [19,20,21]
Structural properties we report the structural properties of the Er and (Er+Bi) co-doped yttrium oxide thin films
Summary
The limitations reached by silicon microelectronics brought the scientific community to move towards the field of silicon photonics with the aim to use photons instead of electrons for carrying and processing information inside a Si chip [1, 2]. In this paper we propose the use of both approaches, i.e. the Er doped yttrium oxide thin films to dissolve high concentrations of active centers in a Si compatible host and at the same time the introduction of Bi as an Er sensitizer as a suitable material for light emission.
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