Photoluminescence of erbium-doped porous silicon prepared by anodic etching of molecular beam epitaxial growth

A new method for fabricating Er-doped porous silicon is presented. The samp le is prepared by anodization of the Er-doped silicon grown by molecular be am epitaxy. A pretty narrow 1.533 mu m emission with a full width at half m aximum (FWHM) of 3meV is achieved, which reflects the uniformity of doping Er in the Si nanostructure. Meanwhile, there is no need to employ high temp erature procedure to incorporate oxygen into the PSi:Er matrix since the co doping of O and Er has already been achieved before the anodization. We dem onstrate the direct comparison of the photoluminescence between the anodize d PSi:Er and the Si:Er grown by MBE. The influence of the visible light and the infrared luminescence bands on the emission of the Er3+ is also discus sed.