Planar A12O3 waveguides were fabricated by sputter deposition of A12O3 onto a thermally oxidized silicon (100) substrate. A SiO2 layer was deposited on top of this as a cladding. The nominal layer thickness of 6µm thermal SiO2, 0.60 µm A12O3 and 1.35µm top SiO2 result in singlemode planar waveguide films at 1.5µm. Annealing of these films at 825°C was performed to achieve a low optical loss of 0.35 dB/cm.1 Preceding the deposition of the top cladding, 2 × 1016 Er/ cm2 was implanted into the A12O3 film at 1.35 MeV, with the sample held at 77 K. Using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, an A12O3 layer thickness of 430 nm and a Gaussian Erbium concentration profile at a depth of 250 nm (full width at half maximum, 135 nm) were measured. The Erbium peak concentration is 1.4 at.%. Upon excitation with an Ar-ion laser the film shows intense room temperature photoluminescence around 1.53 pm due to intra-4/ transitions in Er3+ (Fig. 1, solid line). The luminescence lifetime is 4.5 ms. Earlier work characterizing the photoluminescence properties of similar Er-implanted A12O3 films show that high concentrations of optically active Erbium are attainable without strong concentration quenching effects.2 However, cooperative upconversion was observed in films with an Erbium concentration of 3.6 at.%.
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