Silicon-rich oxynitride hosts for 1.5 μm Er3+ emission fabricated by reactive and standard RF magnetron sputtering

This study compares the erbium emission from different Si-rich silicon oxynitrides matrices fabricated by magnetron sputtering. The Er-doped layers were grown by two different sputtering configurations: (i) standard co-sputtering of three confocal targets (Er2O3, Si3N4 and SiO2) under Ar plasma, and (ii) reactive co-sputtering under Ar + N2 plasma of either three (Er2O3, pure Si and SiO2) or two targets (Er2O3 and pure Si). The last reactive configuration was found to offer the best Er3+ PL intensity at 1.5 μm. This highest PL intensity was found comparable to the corresponding emission from Er-doped silicon-rich silicon oxide.