THE PHOTOLUMINESCENCE OF ERBIUM-DOPED SILICON MONOXIDE

Films of silicon monoxide coevaporated with erbium are shown to produc e strong room temperature photoluminescence peaked at 1535 nm after an nealing at 600 degrees C. Decay measurements show a double exponential function with lifetimes of 0.41 ms and 2.12 ms, suggesting two distin ct optically active erbium sites. Photoluminescence excitation spectro scopy between 700 and 860 nm reveals a monotonic increase in photolumi nescence intensity towards shorter wavelengths. This result suggests t hat the transfer of energy from the pump source to the erbium ions is mainly via the recombination of electron-hole pairs (photocarriers) wh ich are created by absorption within the SiO.