The proposed research and development effort will explore the electroluminescence properties of rare earth elements in a III-V semiconductor. The technique of impact excitation, currently used in commercially available electroluminescence display devices, will be studied for exciting the rare earths. We have already demonstrated the possibility of generating visible light by hot electron impact excitation in a III-V semiconductor. We propose to introduce Erbium (ER) atoms into a III-V semiconductor as a luminescent source for 1.55um light emission. Previously fabricated on-hand devices will be doped with ER atoms by ion beam implantation techniques. This will permit rapid evaluation of the efficiency of electrically exciting ER luminescence. We will also grow new structures by the plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition method incorporating a metalorganic source of ER. This allows growth of ER-doped semiconductors at low temperatures, thus minimizing thermally-induced stresses. These samples will be characterized by a number of analytic methods and compared to the ion implanted/high-temperature annealed material.
Keywords: Rare Earth Doped Iii-V Semiconductor Optoelectronics
