Optical doping of AlN by rare earth implantation

Eu, Tm and Er were implanted into AlN-films grown by HVPE on sapphire or MOCVD on GaN substrates. The implantation damage and annealing as well as the lattice site location of the implanted ions were investigated using the Rutherford backscattering/channeling technique. Our results show a good stability of AlN during heavy-ion bombardment. Annealing up to 1300 °C recovers part of the produced lattice damage. In contrast to theoretical predictions the implanted rare earth ions occupy sites that are displaced from the substitutional Al-site after implantation and annealing. Probably the formation of defect complexes causes this displacement for the high implantation fluence used in this study. Er-implanted AlN shows the typical 1.54 μm emission with a strong thermal quenching.