Room-temperature photoluminescence at 1540 nm from amorphous silicon carbide films implanted with erbium

In the present work, strong room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) at 1540 nm is reported from erbium-implanted and post-annealed amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:Er) films. The stoichiometric SiC films were grown by thermal chemical vapor deposition (TCVD) at 800degreesC, and then implanted to Er fluence of 3x10(15) ions/cm(2) using 380 keV implantation energy. Post-implantation annealing was carried out at the temperature range of 550degreesC to 1350degreesC in argon (At) ambient. The resulting SiC films were characterized by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). Clear PL behavior was seen from the annealed a-SiC:Er samples, even at room temperature, with PL intensity reaching a maximum for samples annealed at 900degreesC. Additional studies of thermal quenching of Er luminescence from a-SiC:Er samples annealed at 900degreesC indicated that as the sample temperature increased from 14K to room temperature, the luminescence intensity at 1540 nm dropped by a factor of similar to3.6. Moreover, the PL spectra of the a-SiC:Er samples did not exhibit any defect-generated luminescence. It is suggested that the lower density of Si and C vacancies in the stoichiometric a-SiC:Er, as compared to its non-stoichiometric a-Si1-xCx counterpart, along with the incorporation of a higher Er dopant concentration, can effectively diminish defect-produced luminescence and lead to a significant improvement in PL performance. These properties suggest that stoichiometric a-SiC:Er may be a good candidate for producing optoelectronic devices operating in the 1540 nm region.