Visible emission from AlN doped with Eu, Tb, and Er ions

We report the observation of visible cathodoluminescence (CL) from AlN thin films grown on sapphire (0001) substrate by molecular beam and doped by implantation with Eu/sup 3+/, Tb/sup 3+/, and Er/sup 3+/ ions. The strong rare earth CL was observed from samples annealed at 1100/spl deg/C for 0.5 h in N/sub 2/ ambient. The sharp characteristic emission lines corresponding to Eu/sup 3+/, Tb/sup 3+/, and Er/sup 3+/ intra -4f/sup n/ shell transitions are resolved in the spectral range from 300 to 1050 nm, (for Er/sup 3+/ also infrared emission at 1.54 /spl mu/m was observed). The CL was recorded over the temperature range of 9-330 K. The CL kinetics for several transitions of Eu/sup 3+/(/sup 5/D/sub 0/), Tb/sup 3+/(/sup 5/D/sub 3, 4/) and, and Er/sup 3+/(/sup 2/H/sub 9/2/, /sup 4/F/sub 7/2/) was analyzed.