Luminescence properties of Er implanted p-type and n-type 3C SiC/Si

In order to investigate the luminescence properties of Er3+ in 3C silicon carbide (SiC), erbium (Er) ions were implanted into n- and p-type 3C SiC on Si and characterized by photoluminescence (PL) measurements. We found that the optimum annealing temperature was 1350 degrees C. We consider that the decrease in PL intensity at 1400 degrees C is caused by melting of Si substrate due to annealing at temperatures near the melting point (1428 degrees C) of Si. From the temperature dependence of n- and p-type 3C SiC,Er/Si, we found a novel difference in the thermal quenching properties between the two types. This may be due to the difference in the recombination time for the process from a host material to excite the Er3+ -4f shell. We found that p-type SiC:Er was superior to the n-type one in terms of temperature quenching of the Er3+ -related emission at 1.54 mu m. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.