Evaluation on Crystal and Optical Properties of AlN:Er Prepared by RF magnetron sputtering method

摘要

The rare earth Er that is rare earth element causes luminescence at 1540nm, which is a low loss transmission window in silica-based fibers used in optical communications. Moreover, it is known that the temperature quenching of the luminescence of Er becomes smaller with the wide band gap of the host material. We report on the photoluminescence (PL) characteristic and X-ray diffraction (XRD) of AlN:Er thin films which are deposited by RF reactive magnetron co-sputtering method. All the thin films were deposited by RF reactive magnetron co-sputtering method from a 99.999% Al target and 99.99% Er chips in a nitrogen gas (99.99995%) atmosphere. The thin films were achieved with a discharge power of 250W in a total pressure of 5.0×10{sup}(-3) Torr, and the deposition times were one hour. After the deposited, these samples were annealed for 30 minutes in the temperature range from 400 to 900°C in a nitrogen gas (99.999%) atmosphere with an infrared lamp heater. PL spectra of AlN:Er were measured using the 325nm line of a He-Cd laser at 15K. Consequently, we observed PL spectra around 1500nm. The strong luminescence of peak wavelength at 1538nm is based on the intra-4f emitting centers of Er. We report systematically the experimental results of PL and XRD.