The effects of rapid annealing and passivation of co-sputtered erbium doped sirich oxide/SiO2 superlattice structures

Erbium doped Si-rich oxide/SiO
₂
(Er:SRO/SiO
₂
) superlattice structures have been deposited using rf magnetron co-sputtering technique. Rapid annealing treatment with and without passivation (annealing in 5%H
₂
:N
₂
at 500°C for 1 hour) were carried out. The optimum annealing temperature for un-passivated and passivated samples is 850°C and 1000°C, respectively. Excitation mechanism of Er is through defects or excitons. Passivation enhanced the Si nanocrystals-mediated-Er photoluminescence (PL) at 1.55 μm quenching the competing non-radiative recombination centers. The passivation also quenched the defect-mediated Er emission. The PL peak intensity of Er emission varied with Si nanocrystal size and the optimum size is ~3.5 nm.