Photoluminescence properties of erbium-doped structures of silicon nanocrystals in silicon dioxide matrix

We present a study of the photoluminescence (PL) of structures of Si nanocrystals (nc-Si) in erbium-doped amorphous silicon dioxide. It is shown that the energy of excitons confined in nc-Si of 2–5 nm sizes is efficiently transferred to Er3+ ions in surrounding SiO2 and a strong PL line at 1.5 μm appears. At high excitation intensity the population inversion of Er3+ ion states is achieved. These results demonstrate good perspectives of Er-doped nc-Si/SiO2 structures for possible applications in Si-based optical amplifiers and lasers.