Giant enhancement of luminescence intensity in Er-doped Si/SiO2 resonant cavities

Abstract

Si/SiO2 Fabry–Pérot microcavities with rare-earth-doped SiO2 active regions are realized for the first time. Cavity-quality factors exceeding Q=300 are achieved with structures consisting of two Si/SiO2 distributed Bragg reflectors and an Er-implanted (λ/2) SiO2 active region. The room-temperature photoluminescence intensity of the on-axis emission is 1–2 orders of magnitude higher for resonant cavity structures as compared to structures without a cavity.