Laser-induced generation of micrometer-sized luminescent patterns on rare-earth-doped amorphous films

摘要

Room-temperature photoluminescence has been achieved from rare-earth-doped amorphous (a-) GeN films. The samples were prepared by the radio-frequency-sputtering method, and light emission from the rare-earth (RE) centers was obtained after irradiating the films with a highly focused laser beam. As a result of this laser annealing procedure, almost circular holes with approximately 1-μm diameter were produced on the surface of the a-GeN films. The area nearby these holes correspond to crystalline Ge and coincide with the regions, where relatively strong RE-related luminescence takes place. These laser-annealed areas can be easily and conveniently managed in order to generate different microscopic luminescent patterns. Depending on the RE ion employed, visible and near-infrared light emission were obtained from the patterns so produced. The development of these micrometer-sized luminescent centers, as well as their probable mechanisms of excitation-recombination, will be presented and discussed. The importance of the current experimental results to future technological applications such as microdevices, for example, will also be outlined.