AVS 49th International Symposium
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuP

Paper TF-TuP20
Molecular Beam Deposition of Yttrium Oxide as a Host Material of Er Doping for an Optoelectronic Amplifier Application

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B2

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: T. Van, University of California, Los Angeles
Authors: B. Cho, University of California, Los Angeles
T. Van, University of California, Los Angeles
J.P. Chang, University of California, Los Angeles
Correspondent: Click to Email
Erbium has been extensively used as a doping material for silicon-based optoelectronic amplifiers due to the 1.54 µm light emission from its trivalent ion, which is one of the standard wavelengths in optic communication. We deposited yttrium oxide as a host material for erbium doping using molecular beams from metal-organic precursor with bera diketonate structures, Y(TMHD)@sub 3@ [TMHD; tris (2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionato)] as well as H, N, and O atom beams and Ar@super +@ ion beam. We chose Y@sub 2@O@sub 3@ as a waveguide core material because it has higher Er solubility and refractive index than silicon or silica, enabling higher signal gain on smaller dimension devices. However, the Er dopants should be evenly distributed to reduce the cooperative upconversion effects leading to the decrease in quantum yield. We could achieve high quality epitaxial films at lower temperatures than required in prevailing sputtering or ion implantation methods by controlling the beam fluxes and energies. During the deposition we monitored the in-situ deposition/etching rates using a quartz crystal microbalance. This low temperature process could reduce the Er diffusion, segreagation, and precipitation resulting in deleterious effects on Er luminescence. Optically-active Er complexes can be easily incorporated into the growing Y@sub 2@O@sub 3@ film without causing defects in the host material since the coordinations are preserved in the precursor molecules as well as Er-O has a lattice constant very similar to Y@sub 2@O@sub 3@ film. We investigated the effects of substrate and doser temperatures, fluxes and energies of the beams on the dopant concentration, its spatial distribution, and the film structure and composition. To this end, we characterized the deposited samples using SIMS, LEED, XRD, and XPS.