Comparison of Two Rare Earth Doping Techniques for Luminescent Europium Doped Silicon Oxide

Silicon-based materials are useful components in microelectronics owing to their tunable electronic properties [1]. However, they are not high-quality photonics candidates for light applications due to indirect band gap nature of silicon. To enhance the light emission properties of silicon, one solution is doping with rare earth elements (RE) because of their allowed 4f transition, and sharp well-defined emission peaks [2]. RE related luminescence has attracted attention for greenhouse applications due to their efficient emissions in the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) regions of 380 to 480 and 600 to 700 nm. The europium trivalent emission (Eu
³
+) is associated with
$^5\mathrm{D}_{0}\rightarrow^{7}\mathrm{F}_{2}$
transitions (red emission at 613 nm), which is of significant interest to drive plant photosynthesis [3].