Luminescence of rare earth-doped Si–ZrO2 co-sputtered films

Luminescence of Er-doped silicon oxide–zirconia thin films

“…The matrix of the GX films can be interpreted as being composed of amorphous silicon oxide pockets within a main body of amorphous zirconia. This is consistent with the description made for the FX samples [21] in which the matrix was composed of a main body of polycrystalline zirconia with SiO x (xo2) pockets (with Si np) at the boundaries between crystalline grains. The difference in the XPS spectra results for F3 with respect to G6 is the presence in the Si 2p spectrum of the Si 1 and Si 2 components.…”

“…For B5 this was estimated to be $9 Â 10 À17 cm 2 [53], in agreement with other calculated values [20], and for F3 it was estimated to be $9 Â 10 À18 cm 2 [21]. By comparing the emission 4 I 13/2 -4 I 15/2 spectrum of G6 with those of B5 and F3 as shown in Fig.…”

“…The other bands were observed for the FX samples as reported in Refs. [21,36], with an additional band at 800 nm due to the SiQO surface states [37] related to the Si np present in these films. Both GX and FX samples present a weakening of hostrelated emissions as the Er 3+ emissions get stronger for excitation at 488.0 nm.…”

“…The Er concentration for the GX films was within the 2000-9000 ppm range, which is a concentration above what most commercial Er-doped fibers have (900-1000 ppm) [23], and is within the 8000-11,000 ppm range for the FX films. XRD patterns were obtained for the GX film samples, which were found to be amorphous, in contrast with the FX samples, which were polycrystalline [21], as is shown in Fig. 1.…”

“…Film samples from this long film to be discussed are denominated as GX (X being an integer). Results from Er-doped Si-YSZ film samples, denominated as FX (X being an integer), previously studied and prepared in similar fashion but with a bigger Er 2 O 3 pellet of 1.43 cm 2 and no SiO 2 target [21], as well as Er-doped silicon-rich silicon oxide (SRSO; A5 and B5) films and one un-doped SRSO film (S3) are used for comparison purposes only. These SRSO films were prepared using a 181.46 cm 2 SiO 2 target instead of the YSZ target (no minor SiO 2 target and for S3 no Er 2 O 3 pellet) in similar way to the GX and FX films.…”