A. N. Yablonskii, B. A. Andreev, D. I. Kryzhkov, V. P. Kuznetsov, D. V. Shengurov, Z. F. Krasil'nik, “Mechanism of the subband excitation of photoluminescence from erbium ions in silicon under high-intensity optical pumping”, Fizika i Tekhnika Poluprovodnikov, 2012, Volume 46, Issue 11,Pages <nobr>1435

This article is cited in 3 papers

XVI Symposium "Nanophysics and Nanoelectronics", Nizhni Novgorod, March 12-16, 2012

Mechanism of the subband excitation of photoluminescence from erbium ions in silicon under high-intensity optical pumping

A. N. Yablonskii^a, B. A. Andreev^a, D. I. Kryzhkov^a, V. P. Kuznetsov^b, D. V. Shengurov^a, Z. F. Krasil'nik^a

^a Institute for Physics of Microstructures, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnii Novgorod
^b Scientific-Research Physicotechnical Institute at the Nizhnii Novgorod State University, Nizhnii Novgorod

Abstract: The photoluminescence (PL) excitation spectra of erbium and band-to-band silicon in Si:Er/Si epitaxial structures under high-intensity pulsed optical excitation are studied. It is shown that the nonmonotonic dependence of the PL intensity on the excitation wavelength $\lambda_{\mathrm{ex}}$ near the absorption edge of silicon is due to inhomogeneity in the optical excitation of the Si:Er active layer. The sharp rise in the erbium PL intensity in the spectral range $\lambda_{\mathrm{ex}}$ = 980–1030 nm is due to an increase in the excited part of the Si:Er emitting layer on passing to subband light pumping ($\lambda_{\mathrm{ex}}>$ 980 nm) with a low absorption coefficient in silicon because of the effective propagation of the excitation light in the bulk of the structures under study. It is shown that, under the subband optical pumping of Si:Er/Si structures, as also in the case of interband pumping, the exciton mechanism of erbium ion excitation is operative. Excitons are generated under the specified conditions as a result of a two-stage absorption process involving impurity states in the band gap of silicon.

Received: 25.04.2012
Accepted: 25.04.2012