Photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy of Er-doped Si prepared by laser ablation

Abstract

Strong room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) peaks of Er3+ (4I13/2→4I15/2) ions at ∼1.535 μm are obtained from Er-doped thin-film Si layers prepared by laser ablation. The Si sample was found to produce optimum photoluminescence peaks at an annealing temperature of about 450 °C. Experimental results also shows that the thermal quenching of the luminescence intensity from 80 K to room temperature is a factor of 2.5 only. PL excitation measurements reveal that the Er luminescence is significantly excited via the silicon band edge. The lifetime of the luminescence from the Si:Er samples is 90±10 μs.