Erbium doped Silicon nanocrystal for optical amplification and lasing

Prospects of Erbium doped Silicon nano-crystal system in achieving on-chip optical amplification and lasing performance have been studied. The mechanism of energy transfer from excitonic recombination in nano-crystals to erbium atoms, and its competition with all non-radiative routes have been analyzed. It is found that the density of nano-crystals play a crucial role in achieving the level of population inversion of erbium excitation. Dependencies of nano-crystal density, erbium density and pumping power have been correlated. Nano-crystal densities of the order of the 6×10¹⁸ cm^-3 with erbium incorporation in the range of 10²⁰ cm^-3 has been found to be resulting in the achievement of population inversion at optical pumping power of the order of 200 mw. High quantum efficiency of energy transfer to erbium atoms has been estimated for incorporated erbium densities beyond 10²⁰ cm^-3.