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Applied Physics Letters

Extraordinary optical gain from silicon implanted with erbium

Manon A. Lourenco, R. Gwilliam, Kevin Peter Homewood

Published Oct 1, 2007• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Here we report on measurements of optical gain at 1.5μm in crystalline silicon. Gain is achieved by the incorporation of the rare earth erbium in silicon. A method was developed to enable the gain measurement in short silicon waveguides. Crucially, gain values obtained are significantly greater than previously supposed. We have measured a lower limit for the optical cross section for Er3+ of 5×10−19cm2, 30 times higher than previously anticipated. Given these higher values, this system now offers a realistic route to the production of electrically pumped silicon optical amplifier and laser devices using standard silicon process technology.

DOI
10.1063/1.2797975

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Energy transfer in erbium doped optical waveguides based on silicon

Pieter G. Kik

Energy transfer in erbium doped optical waveguides based on silicon This thesis describes the energy transfer processes\noccurring in materials that can be used for the fabrication of silicon compatible optical integrated circuits, operating at 1.54 mm.The thesis consists of three parts: Part I discusses energy transfer in optical waveguide amplifiers on silicon. The waveguide amplifiers use an intra-4f transition of the rare earth ion erbium occurring at 1.54 mm. To achieve significant amplification, high\n Er concentrations (> 10 20 cm -3 ) are required. At these concentrations Er ions can interact, resulting in co-operative\n upconversion, in which one excited Er ion is excited into a higher energy state, while a neighboring Er ion returns to the ground\n state. In Part I this and other gain limiting effects are investigated. In particular, it is shown that the atomic-scale Er distribution\n is of crucial importance for the performance of Er doped waveguide amplifiers. Part II discusses the energy transfer processes\n occurring in Er doped silicon. It is shown that Er in silicon can be excited by electron-hole pair recombination in an\n impurity-Auger effect. This effect may be used to fabricate an electrically pumped Er doped waveguide amplifier. The reverse\n process can also occur: an excited Er ion can de-excite and generate an electron-hole pair in the silicon, due to a non-radiative\n backtransfer process. This process has an efficiency of 70% at room temperature. This observation enables the fabrication of an\n Er doped photo-detector in a Si waveguide operating at 1.54 mm. The performance of such a detector is discussed. Part III\n discusses the interaction between Er and silicon nanocrystals embedded in SiO2. Si nanocrystals efficiently absorb visible light,\n resulting in the generation of quantum confined electron-hole pairs. The electron-hole pairs efficiently transfer energy to Er.\n Due to the energy transfer, the effective Er absorption cross section is five orders of magnitude larger than for direct optical\n excitation. Silicon nanocrystals may thus be used to increase the pumping efficiency of an Er doped waveguide amplifier. It is\n shown that a single nanocrystal can excite ~1 Er ion at a time and that an optical gain of 0.6 dB/cm may be achieved in a typical\n nanocrystal sensitized waveguide amplifier. Due to the broad absorption band of Si nanocrystals, a broad band light source can\n be used as pump source in such a nanocrystal sensitized Er doped waveguide amplifier.

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Recent Progress in On-Chip Erbium-Based Light Sources

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Limit to the erbium ions emission in silicon-rich oxide films by erbium ion clustering

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We use a rate equation approach to model the conditions for optical gain in nanocluster sensitized erbium in a slot waveguide geometry. We determine the viability of achieving net gain for the range of reported values of the carrier absorption cross section for silicon nanoclusters. After accounting for the local density of optical states modification of the emission rates, we find that gain is impossible in continuous wave pumping due to carrier absorption, regardless of the carrier absorption cross section. We, therefore, propose a pulsed electrical operation scheme which mitigates carrier absorption by taking advantage of the short lifetime of silicon nanoclusters compared to erbium. We show that pulsed excitation of a 10 nm layer achieves a modal gain of 0.9 dB/cm during each pulse. Furthermore this gain can be increased to 2 dB/cm by pumping a 50 nm layer.

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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Pacific Rim (CLEO-PR)•Jul 31, 2022•0 citations
Here we report on measurements of optical gain at 1.5μm in crystalline silicon. Gain is achieved by the incorporation of the rare earth erbium in silicon. A method was developed to enable the gain measurement in short silicon waveguides. Crucially, gain values obtained are significantly greater than previously supposed. We have measured a lower limit for the optical cross section for Er3+ of 5×10−19cm2, 30 times higher than previously anticipated. Given these higher values, this system now offers a realistic route to the production of electrically pumped silicon optical amplifier and laser devices using standard silicon process technology.
Energy transfer in erbium doped optical waveguides based on silicon This thesis describes the energy transfer processes\noccurring in materials that can be used for the fabrication of silicon compatible optical integrated circuits, operating at 1.54 mm.The thesis consists of three parts: Part I discusses energy transfer in optical waveguide amplifiers on silicon. The waveguide amplifiers use an intra-4f transition of the rare earth ion erbium occurring at 1.54 mm. To achieve significant amplification, high\n Er concentrations (> 10 20 cm -3 ) are required. At these concentrations Er ions can interact, resulting in co-operative\n upconversion, in which one excited Er ion is excited into a higher energy state, while a neighboring Er ion returns to the ground\n state. In Part I this and other gain limiting effects are investigated. In particular, it is shown that the atomic-scale Er distribution\n is of crucial importance for the performance of Er doped waveguide amplifiers. Part II discusses the energy transfer processes\n occurring in Er doped silicon. It is shown that Er in silicon can be excited by electron-hole pair recombination in an\n impurity-Auger effect. This effect may be used to fabricate an electrically pumped Er doped waveguide amplifier. The reverse\n process can also occur: an excited Er ion can de-excite and generate an electron-hole pair in the silicon, due to a non-radiative\n backtransfer process. This process has an efficiency of 70% at room temperature. This observation enables the fabrication of an\n Er doped photo-detector in a Si waveguide operating at 1.54 mm. The performance of such a detector is discussed. Part III\n discusses the interaction between Er and silicon nanocrystals embedded in SiO2. Si nanocrystals efficiently absorb visible light,\n resulting in the generation of quantum confined electron-hole pairs. The electron-hole pairs efficiently transfer energy to Er.\n Due to the energy transfer, the effective Er absorption cross section is five orders of magnitude larger than for direct optical\n excitation. Silicon nanocrystals may thus be used to increase the pumping efficiency of an Er doped waveguide amplifier. It is\n shown that a single nanocrystal can excite ~1 Er ion at a time and that an optical gain of 0.6 dB/cm may be achieved in a typical\n nanocrystal sensitized waveguide amplifier. Due to the broad absorption band of Si nanocrystals, a broad band light source can\n be used as pump source in such a nanocrystal sensitized Er doped waveguide amplifier.
In recent years, silicon photonics has achieved great success in optical communication area. More and more on-chip optoelectronic devices have been realized and commercialized on silicon photonics platform, such as silicon-based modulators, filters and detectors. However, on-chip light sources are still not achieved because that silicon is an indirect bandgap material. To solve this problem, the rare earth element erbium (Er) is considered, which emits light covering 1.5 μm to 1.6 μm and has been widely used in fiber amplifiers. Compared to Er-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA), the Er ion concentration needs to be more than two orders higher for on-chip Er-based light sources due to the compact size integration requirements. Therefore, the choice of the host material is crucially important. In this paper, we review the recent progress in on-chip Er-based light sources and the advantages and disadvantages of different host materials are compared and analyzed. Finally, the existing challenges and development directions of the on-chip Er-based light sources are discussed.
We have fabricated a series of thin (~50 nm) erbium-doped (by ion implantation) silicon-rich oxide films in the configuration that mitigates previously proposed mechanisms for loss of light emission capability of erbium ions. By combining the methods of optical, structural and electrical analysis, we identify the erbium ion clustering as a driving mechanism to low optical performance of this material. Experimental findings in this work clearly evidence inadequacy of the commonly employed optimization procedure when optical amplification is considered. We reveal that the significantly lower erbium ion concentrations are to be used in order to fully exploit the potential of this approach and achieve net optical gain.
We use a rate equation approach to model the conditions for optical gain in nanocluster sensitized erbium in a slot waveguide geometry. We determine the viability of achieving net gain for the range of reported values of the carrier absorption cross section for silicon nanoclusters. After accounting for the local density of optical states modification of the emission rates, we find that gain is impossible in continuous wave pumping due to carrier absorption, regardless of the carrier absorption cross section. We, therefore, propose a pulsed electrical operation scheme which mitigates carrier absorption by taking advantage of the short lifetime of silicon nanoclusters compared to erbium. We show that pulsed excitation of a 10 nm layer achieves a modal gain of 0.9 dB/cm during each pulse. Furthermore this gain can be increased to 2 dB/cm by pumping a 50 nm layer.
Rare-earth ion doped oxide thin films integrated on silicon substrates provide a route toward scalable, chip-scale platforms for quantum coherent devices. Erbium-doped TiO2 is an attractive candidate: the Er3+ optical transition is compatible with C-band optical fiber communications, while TiO2 is an insulating dielectric compatible with silicon process technology. Through structural and optical studies of Er-doped TiO2 thin films grown via molecular beam deposition on silicon, SrTiO3, and sapphire substrates, we have explored the impact of polycrystallinity and microstructure on the optical properties of the Er emission. Comparing polycrystalline TiO2(rutile)/Si with single-crystalline TiO2(rutile)/r-sapphire and polycrystalline TiO2(anatase)/Si with single-crystalline TiO2(anatase)/SrTiO3, we observe that the inhomogeneous linewidth (Γinh) of the most prominent peak in the Er spectrum (the Y1–Z1 transition, 1520 and 1533 nm in rutile and anatase TiO2) is significantly narrower in the polycrystalline case. This implies a relative insensitivity to extended structural defects and grain boundaries in such films (as opposed to, e.g., point defects). We show that the growth of an undoped, underlying TiO2 buffer on Si can reduce Γinh by a factor of 4–5. Expectedly, Γinh also reduces with decreasing Er concentrations: we observe a ∼2 order of magnitude reduction from ∼1000 ppm Er to ∼10 ppm Er. Γinh then gets limited to a residual value of ∼5 GHz that is insensitive to further reduction in the Er concentration. Based upon the above results, we argue that the optical properties in these thin films are limited by the presence of high “grown-in” point defect concentrations.