Enhanced light emission in photonic crystal nanocavities with Erbium-doped silicon nanocrystals

Photonic crystal nanocavities are fabricated in silicon membranes covered by thermally annealed silicon-rich nitride films with Erbium-doped silicon nanocrystals. Silicon nitride films were deposited by sputtering on top of silicon on insulator wafers. The nanocavities were carefully designed in order to enhance emission from the nanocrystal sensitized Erbium at the 1540 nm wavelength. Experimentally measured quality factors of similar to 6000 were found to be consistent theoretical predictions. The Purcell factor of 1.4 was estimated from the observed 20-fold enhancement of Erbium luminescence. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.