Laser photoluminescence spectrometer based on charge-coupled device detection for silicon-based photonics

We describe and characterize a multichannel modular room temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy system. This low cost instrument offers minimization of size and complexity as well as good flexibility and acceptable spectral resolution. The system employs an efficient flexible front end optics and a sensitive spectrometer with a charge-coupled device array detector. The spectrometer has no moving parts and is more robust than a scanning system. The scientific motivation was to enable the photoluminescence study of various silicon photonics structures. Typical applications are presented for SiOx (x<2) films. It is demonstrated that high-quality steady state photoluminescence data with excellent signal to noise enhancement capability can be delivered besides the ability to perform simultaneous multiwavelength measurements in one shot. This instrument is shown to be useful for evaluating semiconductor wafers, including those intended for light emitting structures from silicon-based photonic crystals. The design, construction, calibration, and the unique features of this system are presented, and performance tests of a prototype are discussed.