Energy sensitization in erbium-doped silicon-rich oxide films annealed at low temperatures

Author

Negro, L. Dal ; Stolfi, M. ; Michel, J. ; Le Blanc, J. ; Haavisto, J. ; Kimerling, L.C.

Author_Institution

MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

21-23 Sept. 2005

Firstpage

87

Lastpage

89

Abstract

Si-rich SiO₂ films (SRO) and Er-doped, Si-rich SiO₂ films (EnSRO) were deposited by reactive RF magnetron co-sputtering followed by thermal annealing in a nitrogen atmosphere in order to investigate the optimum condition for efficient 1.54 μm emission. Reference Er in stoichiometric SiO₂ (Er:SiO₂) films were deposited for comparison. The room temperature photoluminescence intensity of SRO films without Er was found to be maximized at 38 at% Si after annealing at 1100°C for 1 hour. On the contrary, we found that the maximized Er photoluminescence of Er:SRO with 38 at% Si and an Er concentration of 10²⁰ cm^-3 occurred for annealing temperatures between 600°C and 800°C. Under these conditions the 1.54 μm Er emission is enhanced by more than two orders of magnitude relative to Er:SiO₂ samples while negligible SRO emission is observed.

Keywords

annealing; erbium; photoluminescence; silicon compounds; sputter deposition; stoichiometry; thin films; 1 hour; 1.54 mum; 1100 degC; 293 to 298 K; 600 to 800 degC; Er emission; SiO₂; SiO₂ films; SiO₂:Er; energy sensitization; erbium-doped films; low-temperature annealing; nitrogen atmosphere; photoluminescence intensity; reactive RF magnetron cosputtering; room temperature; silicon-rich oxide films; stoichiometric films; thermal annealing; Annealing; Argon; Atmosphere; CMOS technology; Erbium; Photoluminescence; Radio frequency; Semiconductor films; Temperature sensors; Transmission electron microscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Group IV Photonics, 2005. 2nd IEEE International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9070-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/GROUP4.2005.1516413

Filename

1516413