A successful observation and analysis of the Zeeman effect on the lambda approximately 1.54 microm photoluminescence band in Er-doped crystalline MBE-grown silicon are presented. The symmetry of the dominant optically active centers is conclusively established as orthorhombic I(C(2v)) with g axially approximately 18.39 and g radially approximately 0. In this way the long standing puzzle as regards the paramagnetism of optically active Er-related centers in silicon is settled. Preferential generation of a single type of an optically active Er-related center confirmed in this study is essential for photonic applications of Si:Er.

Germanium self-assembled nanoislands and quantum dots are very prospective for CMOS-compatible optoelectronic integrated circuits but their photoluminescence (PL) intensity is still insufficient for many practical applications. Here, it is demonstrated experimentally that the PL of Ge nanoislands in silicon photonic crystal slabs (PCS) with hexagonal lattice can be dramatically enhanced due to the involvement in the emission process of the bounds states in the continuum. These high-Q photonic resonances allow to achieve PL resonant peaks with the quality factor as high as 2200 and with the peak PL enhancement factor of more than two orders of magnitude. The corresponding integrated PL enhancement is demonstrated to be more than one order of magnitude. This effect is studied theoretically by the Fourier modal method in the scattering matrix form. The symmetry of the quasi-normal guided modes in the PCS is described in terms of group theory. This work paves the way toward a new class of optoelectronic components compatible with silicon technology.

We report photoluminescence (PL) studies of Ge(Si) self-assembled islands embedded into a tensile-strained Si layer grown on smooth relaxed Si0.75Ge0.25∕Si(001) buffer layers subjected to chemical-mechanical polishing. The intense PL from Ge(Si) islands embedded into a strained Si layer compared to the PL from islands grown on unstrained Si(001) is associated with efficient confinement of electrons in a strained Si layer on the heterojunction with islands. The observed dependence of the island PL peak position on thickness of strained Si layer confirms the validity of the model for real-space indirect optical transition between electrons confined in the strained Si layer, and holes localized in islands.

Luminescent properties of self-assembled Ge(Si)/SOI nanoislands embedded in twodimensional photonic crystal (PhC) slabs with and without L3 cavities were studied with PhC period a varied between 350 and 600 nm. For small periods (a£450 nm), the nanoisland luminescence, which spans over the wavelength range from 1.2 to 1.6 μm, overlaps with the PhC bandgap resulting in a coupling with the localized modes of an L3 cavity. It is shown that for larger periods (a>450 nm), nanoisland emission couples to the radiative modes above the bandgap located in the vicinity of the Г-point of the photonic crystal Brillouin zone and is characterized by the low group velocity. In this case, a significant (up to 35-fold) increase in the PL intensity was observed in a number of PhCs without a cavity. From a technological point of view, the latter result makes such types of photonic crystal structures particularly promising for the realization of Si-based light emitters operating in the telecommunication wavelength range because, firstly, their manufacture does not require a precise cavity formation and, secondly, they provide a much larger area for the radiating region, as compared with PhC cavities.

We present the results of high-resolution photoluminescence and magneto-optical spectroscopy of selectively doped Si/ Si: Er nanolayer structures grown by sublimation molecular beam epitaxy method. We show that the annealing of such samples results in a preferential formation of a single type of optically active Er-related center. Detailed information on the microscopic structure of this center has been revealed from the investigation of the Zeeman effect. Its symmetry is found to be orthorhombic I ͑C 2v ͒ and several g-tensors of the ground and excited states are determined. The consequences of current findings for the microscopic model of the Er-related center preferentially generated in Si/ Si: Er nanolayers are discussed.