Temperature-induced increase in erbium electroluminescence of epitaxially grown Si:Er diodes

Electroluminescence (EL) at 1.54 μm of reverse biased Si:Er diodes grown by sublimation molecular-beam epitaxy has been investigated as a function of temperature in the range of 80–300 K. An erbium electroluminescence trend versus temperature is shown to be determined by the p–n junction breakdown mechanism: we observe the EL quenching in light emitting diodes (LEDs) exhibiting a tunnel p–n junction breakdown and EL increase with temperature in diodes exhibiting an avalanche one. LEDs exhibiting a mixed p–n junction breakdown show rather weak dependence of erbium EL on temperature. We connect the temperature-induced increase in erbium EL observed in the avalanche LEDs with increase in EL pumping efficiency due to improved p–n junction breakdown homogeneity at higher temperatures.