Enhanced photoluminescence efficiency in Er-Yb codoped InAlP native oxides

Demonstrated is the effectiveness of Yb as a sensitiser to enhance the optical emission of Er in an InAlP native oxide host, which can potentially be integrated with a GaAs-based semiconductor laser. Photoluminescence (PL) and PL excitation spectroscopy are used to evaluate the efficacy of Yb codoping. Compared to samples without Yb, an increase of ~13 times is observed in both the PL and PLE signals for Er-Yb codoped samples with an Er:Yb ratio of 1:3, indicating that the Yb effectively absorbs the pump power and transfers the absorbed energy to the Er ions. The Er PL decay lifetime remains unchanged after codoping with Yb, with the PL emission linewidth decreasing only negligibly from 39 to 35~nm.