Physical and Spectroscopic Characterisation of Active Nanocrystals in Erbium -Doped Silica-Titania Sol-Gel Films

摘要

Silica-titania planar waveguides, doped with Er~3+ions, obtained by the sol-gel process, are for integrated optics amplifiers at 1.54 μm. It was found that the controlled promising candidates precipitation of erbium-containing nanocrystals is very useful in order to maximize the fluorescence lifetime and the quantum efficiency of the rare earth ion. Silica-titania thin films, prepared by sol-gel processing, were doped with 2 at /100 of erbium and, in some cases, with phosphorous; they were then heat-treated between 900 deg. C and 1100 deg. C, in order to promote the precipitation of erbium-containing nanocrystals: erbium dititanate (Er_2Ti_2O_7) and erbium metaphosphate (ErPO_4).