Erbium in Si-based light confining structures

Erbium can provide the Silicon with optoelectronic capabilities. Er:Si has a very sharp emission line at 1.54 μm. The main limitation of Erbium is its low emission efficiency at room temperature. In this work, we show that microcavities can modify the optical properties of the Erbium. Two different mechanisms for modifying the optical properties of the Er ions were studied, one in which the collection of light is optimized. In this case, an enhancement of the photoluminescence by a factor of 1000 was obtained. The second mechanism that was studied is a strong photon-Erbium interaction. In this case, we show evidence for mixing of optical properties of Erbium and photons indicating that properties such as lifetime and energy levels can be changed externally.