Characterization of Er in porous Si

The fabrication of porous Si-based Er-doped light emitting devices is a very promising developing field for all-silicon light emitters. However, while luminescence of Er-doped porous silicon devices has been demonstrated, very little attention has been devoted to the doping process itself. We have undertaken a detailed study of this process examining the porous silicon matrix from several points of view, during and after the doping. In particular, we have found that the Er doping process shows a threshold level which, as evidenced by the cross correlation of the various techniques used, does depend on the sample thickness and on the doping parameters

Erbium dopants in silicon nanophotonic waveguides

The combination of established nanofabrication with attractive material properties makes silicon a promising material for quantum technologies, where implanted dopants serve as qubits with high density and excellent coherence even at elevated temperatures. In order to connect and control these qubits, interfacing them with light in nanophotonic waveguides offers unique promise. Here, we present resonant spectroscopy of implanted erbium dopants in such waveguides. We overcome the requirement of high doping and above-bandgap excitation that limited earlier studies. We thus observe erbium incorporation at well-defined lattice sites with a thousandfold reduced inhomogeneous broadening of about 1 GHz and a spectral diffusion linewidth down to 45 MHz. Our study thus introduces a novel materials platform for the implementation of on-chip quantum memories, microwave-to-optical conversion, and distributed quantum information processing, with the unique feature of operation in the main wavelength band of fiber-optic communication.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Waveguiding and photoluminescence in Er³⁺-doped Ta₂O₅ planar waveguides

The optimization of erbium-doped Ta2O5 thin film waveguides deposited by magnetron sputtering onto thermally oxidized silicon wafer is described. Optical constants of the film were determined by ellipsometry. For the slab waveguides, background losses below 0.4dB/cm at 633nm have been obtained before post-annealing. The samples, when pumped at 980nm yielded abroad photoluminescence spectrum (FWHM ~50 nm) centred at 1534nm, corresponding to 4 I 13/2 to the 4 I 15/2 transition of Er3+ ion. The samples were annealed up to 600 °C and both photoluminescence power and fluorescence lifetime increase with post-annealing temperature and a fluorescence lifetime of 2.4ms was achieved, yielding promising results for compact waveguide amplifier