Erbium–Silicon–Oxide crystalline films prepared by MOMBE

Er–Si–O crystalline thin film preparation on silicon substrates by using metal organic molecular beam epitaxy (MOMBE) is proposed. Tetra ethoxy silane (TEOS) and tris-2,2,6,6-tetra methyl-3,5-octane dionato erbium (Er(TMOD) ₃ ) were used as Si–O and Er–O precursors, respectively. The Er–Si–O thin film crystallizes mainly during the post-annealing process and into a novel type of erbium-silicate crystalline compounds, which have not ever been reported. The atomic fraction of Er:Si:O in the prepared thin film is 3:2:8. The Er ³⁺ related PL spectra show a fine structure with a line width of less than 1 meV at 20 K and 4 meV at room temperature. The narrow line width is due to the crystalline nature. In addition, the PL spectrum fine structure observed in these Er–Si–O films has reproduced the fine structure observed in Er–Si–O crystallites prepared by the wet-chemical method reported by Isshiki et al. The present results have proved that the method proposed in this paper is effective to form Er–Si–O crystalline films.