Optical and magnetic properties for erbium-related centres in self-assembled silicon namostructures

摘要

We present the first findings of high efficient Er{sup}3+-related electroluminescence {sup}4I{sub}(13/2)→{sup}4I{sub}(15/2) from self-assembled silicon nanostructures with sizes varying from 1.0 to 10 nm that are naturally prepared as a subsequence of quantum-size n{sup}- -p junctions. The built-in electric field induced by these n{sup}+ -p junctions is found to result in the Stark effect that perturbs strong sp-f mixing due to the electron-hole localization on the Er{sup}3+-ions incorporated into nanostructures. This spatial confinement is shown to cause ultrafast energy transfer to the erbium-related centres which increases with decreasing size of nanostructures thereby enhancing the electroluminescent efficiency.