Infrared emission from Si implanted with high Er concentration

Erbium-doped silicon has been fabricated by ion implantation performed on a metal vapour vacuum are ion source. After rapid thermal annealing (RTA), 1 .54 mum photoluminescence was observed at 77K. Rutherford backscattering sp ectrum indicated that Er ions are mainly distributed near the surface of th e samples, and Er concentration exceeded 10(21)cm(-3). Needle nanometre cry stalline silicon (nc-Si) was formed on the substrate surface. Band edge emi ssion spectrum at 10K verified that the minority carrier lifetime increased upon RTA. The photocarrier mediated processes enabled energy transferring from nc-Si (or c-Si) to the Er3+ ions and resulted in light emission of 1.5 4 mum.