Extremely sharp erbium-related intra-4<i>f</i>-shell photoluminescence of erbium-doped GaAs grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

A drastic change is observed in the 1.5 μm Er-related photoluminescence spectra for GaAs:Er grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, when the growth temperature and arsine partial pressure are reduced. An optically efficient Er-emitting center which shows a photoluminescence spectrum with narrow linewidth (less than 0.03 nm at 2 K) and high peak intensity is preferentially photoexcited in the crystal grown at 550 °C with a V/III ratio of 3. The linewidth of the luminescence is comparable to rare-earth-related luminescence of rare-earth-doped insulators such as YAG:Nd.