Optical and Structural Properties of Er~(3+)-doped SiO_2-ZrO_2 Glass-Ceramic Thin Film

摘要

The Er~(3+)-activate dielectric thin film can be applied to produce planar waveguide amplifiers that can be integrated with other active or passive devices on the same chip. However, Er~(3+) tend to cluster in host material especially in silica when doped at high concentration. This issue can be overcome by introducing ZrO_2 as a co-host material in a silica glass matrix by helping to disperse Er~(3+) homogeneously and consequently enhance the output intensity. In this work, we present a study on 70SiO_2-30ZrO_2 glass ceramic doped with a various concentration of Er~(3+) prepared by the sol-gel dip coating technique and each film obtained were annealed at 900°C. Full film densification was achieved for the deposited film, which indicates the hydroxyl group was successfully removed as shown in Raman spectra. Refractive index of the film increase with the increment of rare earth ion and this permit the guiding of light in the film. Red and green emissions of Er ~(3+) were detected upon 514.5 nm excitation. Nevertheless, the presence of higher Er ~(3+) (0.58 mol%) induces concentration quenching phenomena as shown in the PL spectra where there is a decline in green emission peak.