Erbium-Silicon-Oxide crystalline films prepared by MOMBE

Er-Si-O crystalline thin film preparation on silicon substrates by using metal organic molecular beam epitaxy (MOMBE) is proposed. Tetra ethoxy silane (TEOS) and tris-2,2,6,6-tetra methyl-3,5-octane dionato erbium (Er(TMOD)3) were used as Si-O and Er-O precursors, respectively. The Er-Si-O thin film crystallizes mainly during the post-annealing process and into a novel type of erbium-silicate crystalline compounds, which have not ever been reported. The atomic fraction of Er:Si:O in the prepared thin film is 3:2:8. The Er3+ related PL spectra show a fine structure with a line width of less than 1 meV at 20 K and 4 meV at room temperature. The narrow line width is due to the crystalline nature. In addition, the PL spectrum fine structure observed in these Er-Si-O films has reproduced the fine structure observed in Er-Si-O crystallites prepared by the wet-chemical method reported by Isshiki et al. The present results have proved that the method proposed in this paper is effective to form Er-Si-O crystalline films.