Luminescence at 2.8 μm: Er3+-doped chalcogenide micro-waveguide

This paper reports the fabrication of luminescent optical rib/ridge waveguides made of erbium doped Ga-Ge-Sb-S films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering. Several fluorescence emissions of Er3+ ions from the visible to the middle infrared spectral domain were clearly observed within the films. The study of the 4I(13/2) level lifetime enabled development of a suitable annealing treatment of the films to reach the value of the bulk counterpart while the variation in surface roughness was limited, thus ensuring reasonable optical losses (0.7-0.9 dB/cm). Amplification experiments were carried out at 1.54 gm leading to complete characterization of the erbium-doped micro-waveguide with similar to 3.4 dB/cm on/off gain. A demonstration of mid-IR photoluminescence from Er3+-doped chalcogenide micro-waveguide was recorded at similar to 2.76 mu m. The multi-luminescence from the visible to mid-IR generated using erbium doped chalcogenide waveguiding micro-structures might find easy-to-use applications concerning telecommunication technologies or on-chip optical sensors for which luminescent sources or amplifiers operating at different wavelengths are required. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.