title: Nanocluster sensitized erbium-doped silicon monoxide waveguides.
abstract: We describe the fabrication and characterization of micron-scale buried strip waveguides with erbium-doped (~ 1 at. %) silicon monoxide (SiO) cores and SiO(2) and polymer claddings. In spite of large core-cladding index offset (Deltan~0.4), propagation loss is as low as ~ 1 dB/cm. The cross-section for the (4)I(13/2) to (4)I(15/2) erbium transition was estimated as ~10(-20) cm(2), a factor of 2 to 3 higher than in silica glass. The annealed core material contains a high density of amorphous silicon nanoclusters, which act as efficient broadband sensitizers for erbium. Both a traditional co-propagating pump (980 nm wavelength) configuration and a transverse pump (532 nm wavelength, < 10 W/cm(2)) configuration were tested. In either case, free carrier absorption loss is the dominant pump-induced mechanism and approximately 15-20 % of the erbium population is invertible.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Clement
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Decorby
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ponnampalam
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hryciw
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meldrum