PHOTOLUMINESCENCE CHARACTERIZATION OF RARE-EARTH (ER,YB)-DOPED INP GROWN BY METALORGANIC CHEMICAL VAPOR-DEPOSITION

Er-doped and Yb-doped InP epitaxial crystals were grown by MOCVD and photoluminescence (PL) of intra-4f-shell transitions of the rare earth ions was observed. Rare-earth-ion-related PL intensities are observed to increase only sublinearly as a function of excitation photon density. Their decay time constants are about one order of magnitude smaller than those of corresponding rare earth ions in CdS. These results indicate that a strong nonradiative bimolecular decay mechanism is in effect in state-of-the-art crystals and that intra-4f-shell transitions of rare earth ions depend strongly on the host crystals in which the ions are incorporated.