Photoluminescence from Er-doped Si-rich Si oxides deposited by magnetron sputtering in Ar or Ar+H2 plasmas

The authors have studied photoluminescence (PL) from Er-doped Si-rich Si oxide (SRSO) films deposited by magnetron sputtering of an Er+Si+SiO2 composite target in Ar or Ar+H2 ambients. When the samples were annealed in N2, for the film grown in an Ar ambient, the PL annealing behaviors reveal that the emissions from the film are defect-related and that the Er3+ PL at 1.54μm is possibly triggered by a defect-mediated energy transfer process; …