  Silicon films doped with Er and O were prepared by techniques of physical
vapor deposition on crystalline silicon, ion beam mixing and oxygen
incorporation through Ar+ and O2+ implantation, and thermal annealing.
Processing steps were tailored to be compatible with standard CMOS and to be of
notably low cost to fabricate optically active media for silicon-based infrared
emitters. The Si:Er:O films exhibit strong photoluminescence at room
temperature that is analogous to Stark-split Er+3 ion 1.55-micron bands in
fiber-optic materials. Concentration distributions were determined by
Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. It is found that photoluminescence
signals increase with the O to Er ratio. Ion implantation effectively enhances
the thermal diffusion of Er and improves its optical activation.
