1.54 μm room temperature emission from Er-doped Si nanocrystals deposited by ECR-PECVD

In this work, silicon nanocrystals (Si-nc) embedded in a silicon-rich silicon oxide (SRSO) matrix doped with Er3+ ions for different erbium and silicon concentrations have been deposited by electron-cyclotron resonance plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposition (ECR-PECVD) technique. Their optical properties have been investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and reflectance spectroscopy. Room temperature emission bands centered at ∼1.54 and at 0.75 μm have been obtained for all samples. The most intense emission band at ∼1.54 μm was obtained for samples with concentrations of 0.45% and 39% for erbium and silicon, respectively. Moreover, it has been found that the broad emission band centered at ∼0.75 μm for all samples shows a very strong interference pattern related to the a specific sample structure and a high sample quality.