AbstractHydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films, co-doped with oxygen, are made using lowpressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) or plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The films are implanted with Er to a peak concentration of 0.2 at.%. Roomtemperature photoluminescence at 1.54 μm is observed in both amorphous materials, after thermal annealing at 300–400 °C. The PECVD films with low 0 content (0.3, 1.3 at.%) show a luminescence intensity quenching by a factor 7–15 as the temperature is raised from 10 K to room temperature. The quenching is well correlated with a decrease in luminescence lifetime, indicating that non-radiative decay of excited Er3+ is the dominant quenching mechanism as the temperature is increased. In the LPCVD films, with 31 at.% 0, the quenching is only a factor 3, and no lifetime quenching is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of an impurity Auger excitation model, taking into account the fact that oxygen modifies the Si bandgap and the Er-related defect levels in the gap.
Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
