Investigation of emitting centers in SiO{sub 2} codoped with silicon nanoclusters and Er{sup 3+} ions by cathodoluminescence technique

Journal Article · Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3517091· OSTI ID:21537959

Cueff, Sebastien; Labbe, Christophe; Portier, Xavier; Rizk, Richard ^[1]; Dierre, Benjamin; Fabbri, Filippo; Sekiguchi, Takashi ^[2]

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1. Centre de Recherche sur les Ions, les Materiaux et la Photonique (CIMAP), ENSICAEN, CNRS, CEA/IRAMIS, Universite de Caen, 14050 CAEN Cedex (France)
2. Advanced Electronic Materials Center, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba 305-0044 (Japan)

This study reports on the investigation and characterization of the different emitting centers within SiO{sub 2} codoped by Er{sup 3+} ions and silicon-excess. Erbium doped silicon-rich silicon oxide (SRSO:Er) thin films, fabricated by magnetron cosputtering at 500 deg. C, were analyzed by means of cathodoluminescence. The CL spectra of SRSO, Er-doped SiO{sub 2} and SRSO:Er were recorded and compared for various annealing temperatures. It was found that some specific optically-active point-defects called silicon-oxygen-deficient centers (SiODCs) are present in all kinds of samples. In the layers containing some excess Si, the phase separation between Si nanoclusters (Si-ncs) and SiO{sub 2} is observed when the annealing temperature reaches and exceeds 900 deg. C. The formation of Si-nc increases with annealing at the expense of SiODCs that was assumed to act as seeds for the growth of Si-nc. For SRSO:Er samples, the contribution of SiODCs overlaps that due to Er{sup 3+} transitions in the visible range. The emissions from SiODCs are drastically reduced when an SRSO sample is doped with Er ions, whereas the Er emissions in the visible range start to be distinctly observed. We propose a scenario of energy transfer from SiODCs toward the Er ions, especially as the emissions from the Si-based entities (SiODCs, Si-nc) and from some transitions of Er ions are located in a same visible broad range.

• OSTI ID: 21537959
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 108, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3517091; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANNEALING
CATHODOLUMINESCENCE
DEPOSITION
DOPED MATERIALS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ERBIUM
ERBIUM IONS
LAYERS
MAGNETRONS
NANOSTRUCTURES
POINT DEFECTS
RESOLUTION
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
SILICON OXIDES
SPUTTERING
THIN FILMS
VISIBLE SPECTRA
CHALCOGENIDES
CHARGED PARTICLES
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
ELECTRON TUBES
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
EQUIPMENT
FILMS
HEAT TREATMENTS
IONS
LUMINESCENCE
MATERIALS
METALS
MICROWAVE EQUIPMENT
MICROWAVE TUBES
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTON EMISSION
RARE EARTHS
SEMIMETALS
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SPECTRA