A novel method to achieve 1.54 μm light emission from silica thin films

Erbium and silicon were dual implanted into thermally grown SiO2 film on Si by a metal vapor vacuum arc ion source, followed by rapid thermal annealing at 900–1100°C for 20 s. 1.54 μm photoluminescence was observed at room temperature and 77 K. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry shows that Er ions mainly distribute near the surface, and the highest Er concentration exceeds the magnitude of 1021 cm−3. Needle nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) is formed on the surface of the implanted layer. X-ray photoelectron spectrum analyzed the concentration proportion of Er, Si, SiO2 in the implanted layer, excess Si concentration ranges from 11.1% to 22.7%. The Er3+ acts as an isolated ion luminescence center, most excitation energy may be obtained from the electron–hole combination at the interface of nc-Si/SiO2 (or c-Si/SiO2), and then the energy transfer to Er3+, results in the light emission of 1.54 μm.