We have fabricated erbium–oxygen-doped silicon light emitting diodes with molecular beam epitaxy by simultaneously evaporating erbium and silicon and providing a suitable background pressure of oxygen. In reverse bias, the diodes show intense room-temperature electroluminescence at λ=1.54 μm, originating from the intra-4f transition of erbium. This luminescence does not show temperature quenching between 4 and 300 K. In forward bias the erbium peak intensity is reduced by a factor of 30 at low temperatures and shows temperature quenching.

The electroluminescence behavior of erbium-oxygen-doped silicon light emitting diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy was studied for a fixed oxygen to erbium concentration ratio of about six. The diodes were operated in reverse bias. An increase of the erbium and oxygen content leads to a stronger erbium intensity at 5 K up to an erbium concentration of 1.5×1020 cm−3, an enhanced decrease of the erbium intensity with higher temperatures, and a shift of the temperature quenching onset to lower temperatures. The strongest erbium electroluminescence emission in reverse bias in this set of samples was obtained from annealed Si:Er-diodes doped with concentrations of 5×1019, or 1.5×1020 cm−3 erbium and 3×1020 or 3×1021 cm−3 oxygen, respectively. Electroluminescence emission due to erbium was detected up to 440 K.

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We report on a systematic study of the growth parameters of erbium-oxygen-doped silicon grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The surface quality of the grown layers was measured in situ by RHEED. The samples were characterized by photoluminescence measurements and SIMS. An Er-O-doped Si light emitting diode grown with the optimized parameters is presented.