Waveguiding properties of Er-implanted silicon-rich oxides

The optical properties of erbium-doped silicon-rich silicon-oxide waveguides containing amorphous silicon nanoclusters and/or silicon nanocrystals are reported. Both amorphous nanoclusters and nanocrystals are shown to act as effective sensitizers for Er, with nanocrystals being more effective at low pump powers and nanoclusters being more effective at higher pump powers. All samples are shown to exhibit photo-induced absorption, as measured for a guided 1.5 μm probe beam while the waveguide was illuminated from above with a 477 nm pump beam. At a given pump power samples containing silicon nanocrystals exhibited greater attenuation than samples containing amorphous nanoclusters. The absorption is shown to be consistent with confined-carrier absorption due to photoexcited carriers in the nanocrystals and/or nanoclusters.