Fluorescence line narrowing and decay dynamics of Er3+ ions in silicon-rich silicon oxide multilayers

Erbium doped silicon-rich silica layer, known for their potential application for active devices, have been investigated by means of site selective laser spectroscopy and fluorescence dynamics at low temperature. It is pointed out that only one erbium local surrounding is identified within the relaxation limit introduced by the non-resonant fluorescence line narrowing technique. Furthermore, radiative relaxation of erbium ions exhibits a non-exponential behavior tentatively explained by diffusion-limited energy transfer between erbium ions and towards unknown traps.