Impact of Si nanocrystals in a-SiO{sub}x in C-Band emission for applications in resonators structures

摘要

Si nanocrystals (Si-NC) in a-SiO{sub}x were created by high temperature annealing. Si-NC samples have large emission in a broadband region, 700nm to 1000nm. Annealing temperature, annealing time, substrate type, and erbium concentration is studied to allow emission at 1550nm for samples with erbium. Emission in the "C-Band" region is largely reduced by the presence of Si-NC. This reduction may be due to less efficient energy transfer processes from the nanocrystals than from the amorphous matrix to the Er{sup}(3+) ions, perhaps due to the formation of more centro-symmetric Er{sup}(3+) sites at the nanocrystal surfaces or to very different optimal erbium concentrations between amorphous and crystallized samples.