Erbium doped silicon light emitters

Summary form only given. Erbium as a light emitter in silicon has the potential as an integrated light source for optical interconnection. This possibility opens the door to integrating silicon optoelectronics with very large scale integration (VLSI) electronics to overcome high interconnection density, bandwidth limitations and high power dissipation. Erbium emits at 1.54 /spl mu/m due to an internal 3f shell transition independent of the host material. Hence its luminescence wavelength is temperature independent and exhibits small linewidth, which offers high bandwidth capacity and is therefore advantageous for optical communications. The authors deal with the key material and device issues in silicon light emitter fabrication in the context of integrated optical interconnection.<>