title: Temperature dependence of sensitized Er(3+) luminescence in silicon-rich oxynitride films.
abstract: The temperature dependence of sensitized Er(3+) emission via localized states and silicon nanoclusters has been studied to get an insight into the excitation and de-excitation processes in silicon-rich oxynitride films. The thermal quenching of Er(3+) luminescence is elucidated by terms of decay time and effective excitation cross section. The temperature quenching of Er(3+) decay time demonstrates the presence of non-radiative trap states, whose density and energy gap between Er(3+) (4) I 13/2 excited levels are reduced by high-temperature annealing. The effective excitation cross section initially increases and eventually decreases with temperature, indicating that the energy transfer process is phonon assisted in both samples.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lingbo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Dongsheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Deren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yang
keywords: Energy transfer; Erbium; Luminescence; Silicon-rich oxynitride; Temperature dependence