title: Nanosecond dynamics of the near-infrared photoluminescence of Er-doped SiO2 sensitized with Si nanocrystals.
abstract: We report on an observation of a fast 1.5 microm photoluminescence band from Er3+ ions embedded in an SiO2 matrix doped with Si nanocrystals, which appears and decays within the first microsecond after the laser excitation pulse. We argue that the fast excitation and quenching are facilitated by Auger processes related to transitions of confined electrons or holes between the space-quantized levels of Si nanocrystals dispersed in SiO2. We show that a great part--about 50%--of all Er dopants is involved in these fast processes and contributes to the submicrosecond emission.
authors.affiliation: Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Valckenierstraat 65, NL-1018XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Izeddin
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Moskalenko
authors.forename: I N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Yassievich
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gregorkiewicz