Intense electroluminescence from Al2O3/Tb2O3 nanolaminate films fabricated by atomic layer deposition on silicon

Intense electroluminescence (EL) from Tb3+ ions in the Al2O3/Tb2O3 nanolaminate films is achieved in a metal-oxide-semiconductor structure fabricated on silicon, utilizing atomic layer deposition. Precisely controlling of the nanolaminates enables the study on the influence of the atomic Tb layers and the distance between every dopant layers on the EL mechanism. The EL intensity decreases with excessive Tb dopant cycles due to the reduction of optically active Tb3+ ions. Cross-relaxation among adjacent Tb2O3 dopant layers depopulates the excited ions in D-5(3) level and contributes to the green EL from D-5(4) level, which strongly depends on the Al2O3 sublayer thickness with a critical value of similar to 3 nm. The 543 nm green EL from Tb3+ ions shows maximum power density of 3.37 mW cm(-2) and external quantum efficiency up to 0.73%. Further promotion of efficiency is realized by adopting thicker luminescent layer and Al2O3 cladding layer. (c) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement