Erbium-doped sol-gel materials for optical applications

Anette Berni; Martin Mennig; Helmut K. Schmidt

doi:10.1117/12.472488

3 April 2003 Erbium-doped sol-gel materials for optical applications

Anette Berni, Martin Mennig, Helmut K. Schmidt

Proceedings Volume 4944, Integrated Optical Devices: Fabrication and Testing; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.472488
Event: Photonics Fabrication Europe, 2002, Bruges, Belgium

Abstract

A new chemical nanotechnological route for the preparation of fully densified doped SiO₂ coatings with thicknesses in the low µm-range on Si- and SiO₂-wafers has been developed. Beside pure SiO₂ coatings, that might be useful as a buffer layer on silicon, silicate layers with increased refractive index are needed for planar waveguide application. Therefore, a synthesis for the preparation of nano particulate sols was developed, thus allowing the incorporation of dopands like Al₂O₃, PbO and Er₂O₃ for passive and active layers. Alumina was incorporated for the improvement of the Erbium solubility in active components. The coating sols consist of an organic binder, dissolved in a suspension of nanoscaled silica particles (10 nm in diameter) and dopands and were applied on Si- and SiO₂-wafers by spin coating. After removal of the binder at 500 °C, investigated by IR-spectroscopy, highly porous (nD = 1.23) but transparent doped silica layers were obtained. The densification of the layers was examined by measuring the refractive index by ellipsometry as a function of the densification temperature. Completely densified layers with thicknesses between 1.7 µm (doped SiO₂) and 6.5 µm (doped SiO₂) were obtained at temperatures between 1000 °C (doped SiO₂) and 1100 °C) (pure SiO₂). The layer thickness and unevenness was determined by interferometric measurements. The optical loss of Al₂O₃ and PbO doped layers was measured by prism coupling, the Er₂O₃ doped layers with Er³⁺ concentrations of up to 2.5 mole % show fluorescence around 1500 nm with a fluorescence lifetime of about 3.6 ms.

Citation Download Citation

Anette Berni, Martin Mennig, and Helmut K. Schmidt "Erbium-doped sol-gel materials for optical applications", Proc. SPIE 4944, Integrated Optical Devices: Fabrication and Testing, (3 April 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.472488

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