Photonic crystal membrane with single crystalline rare-earth oxide using selective area growth by MBE

We present a fabrication method for a photonic crystal membrane consisting of Er
₂
O
₃
/Si, and investigate the induced photonic band-gap effect. We obtain a fine photonic crystal structure by selective area growth of Er
₂
O
₃
on a pre-patterned Si(111) membrane by the molecular beam epitaxy method, and the fabricated Er
₂
O
₃
/Si photonic crystals show the suppression of the radiative transition as a result of the photonic band-gap effect at the designed energies. This fabrication method can be applied to various rare-earth oxides with a cubic crystal structure and is promising for realizing optical quantum memories with high-efficiency information exchange between light and matter.