Photoluminescence in Er-implanted amorphous Ge-S-Ga thin films

The photoluminescence (PL) properties of Er-doped amorphous layers have been investigated. The Er3+ ions with fluences of 10(15), 2x10(15), 5x10(15) and 10(16) ions cm(-2) have been embedded by a subsequent ion implantation into freshly deposited films. The Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) has been used to investigate the film structure and depth distribution of the constituents. A strong broad PL band centered at 1540 nm, corresponding to the I-4(13/2 ->) I-4(15/2) transitions, has been found under excitations at 809, 791, 662 and 532 mn. Annealing at 230 C degrees leads to an improvement of the PL intensity by similar to 50 %. The observed effects are discussed in terms of the glass structure becoming damaged during ion implantation, and the partial restoration of the structure by subsequent annealing.