Erbium ion implantation into different crystallographic cuts of lithium niobate

Single crystals like lithium niobate are frequently doped with optically active rare-earth or transition-metal ions for a variety of applications in optical devices such as solid-state lasers, amplifiers or sensors. To exploit the potential of the Er:LiNbO3, one must ensure high intensity of the 1.5 gm luminescence as an inevitable prerequisite. One of the important factors influencing the luminescence properties of a lasing ion is the crystal field of the surrounding, which is inevitably determined by the crystal structure of the pertinent material. From that point it is clear that it cannot be easy to affect the resulting luminescence properties - intensity or position of the luminescence band - without changing the structure of the substrate. However, there is a possibility to utilise a potential of the ion implantation of the lasing ions, optionally accompanied with a sensitising one, that can, besides the doping, also modify the structure of the treated area od the crystal. This effect can be eventually enhanced by a post-implantation annealing that may help to recover the damaged structure and hence to improve the desired luminescence. In this paper we are going to report on our experiments with ion-implantation technique followed with subsequent annealing could be a useful way to influence the crystal field of LN. Optically active Er:LiNbO3 layers were fabricated by medium energy implantation under various experimental conditions. The Er+ ions were implanted at energies of 330 and 500 key with fluences ranging from 1.0 x 10(15) to 1.0 x 10(16) ion cm(-2) into LiNbO3 single-crystal cuts of both common and special orientations. The as-implanted samples were annealed in air and oxygen at two different temperatures (350 and 600 degrees C) for 5 h. The depth concentration profiles of the implanted erbium were measured by Rutherford Backscattering SpectroScopy (RBS) using 2 MeV He+ ions. The photoluminescence spectra of the samples were measured to determine the emission of 1.5 mu m. It has been shown that the projected range Rp of the implanted erbium depends on the beam energies of implantation. The concentration of the implanted erbium corresponds well with the fluence and is similar in all of the cuts of lithium niobate used. What was different were the intensities of the 1.5 mu m luminescence bands not only before and after the annealing but also in various types of the crystal cuts. The cut perpendicular to the cleavage plane < 10-14 > exhibited the best luminescence properties for all of the experimental conditions used. In order to study the damage introduced by the implantation process, the influence of the annealing procedure on the recovery of the host lattice was examined by RBS/channelling. The RBS/channelling method serves to determine the disorder density in the as-implanted surface layer. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.