Fabrication and stimulated emission of Er-doped nanocrystalline Si waveguides formed on Si substrates by laser ablation

Er-doped nanocrystalline Si (nc-Si) waveguides were fabricated on Si substrates and investigated by optical pumping. A stimulated emission at 1540 nm was demonstrated at room temperature. The sizes of the fabricated Er-doped nc-Si waveguides were 5000 nmX200 nmXL, where L is the cavity length and is changed from 1 to 10 mm. Superlinear optical outputs at 1540 nm were observed for the waveguides longer than 3 mm. The threshold of the optical output where the stimulated emission occurs is in the order of 10 MW/cm(2), and is demonstrated to depend on the cavity length of the waveguides. A large reduction of decay lifetimes of the light output from a cleavage facet of the Er-doped nc-Si waveguides was observed when the pumping power density exceeded the thresholds indicating an increase of transition probabilities in intra-4f electrons in Er3+ ions caused by the stimulated emission. Better 1540 nm laser performance and lower pumping power density should be obtained by optimizing the device structure and increasing the Er concentration. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)04301-6].