Fabrication and optical properties of erbium-doped silicon-rich oxide planar waveguides

In this article we describe the electrochemical method for fabricating Erbium-doped silicon-rich oxide (SRO) planar waveguides. The porosity, Er-ion concentration and the refractive index can be controlled by varying the current density (continuous or pulse currents) during the production process. The refractive index difference between the core and the cladding layers and the profile of SRO waveguides tested by m-line spectrometer and by FE-SEM. The photo-luminescent (PL) emission of Er-ions at 1550 nm in the SRO waveguides can be obtained even when the excitation wavelength was away from resonance absorption band of Er-ions. This result revealed that the observed emission at 1550 nm is possible due to the energy transfer from excitons confined in the nc-Si to Er-ions. The Er-doped SRO waveguides can be applied to optoelectronic devices compatible to Si-based integrated circuit technology.