A comparison of the photoluminescence of Er-doped hydrogenated amorpho
us silicon and crystalline silicon a-Si:H(Er) and c-Si(Er), is present
ed. It is shown that a-Si:H(Er) exhibits efficient room-temperature ph
otoluminescence at 1.537 mu m which is as strong as the emission from
optimized c-Si(Er) at 2 K. Most remarkably, there is practically no te
mperature quenching of the emission intensity in the range 2-300 K. Th
e experiments suggest that the lifetime connected with the Er-induced
emission is considerably shorter in a-Si:H(Er) than in c-Si(Er) which
may be responsible for the different dependences of the photoluminesce
nce intensity on the temperature, chopping frequency, and excitation p
ower. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.