Room-temperature photoluminescence in erbium-doped deuterated amorphous carbon prepared by low-temperature MO-PECVD.

We report on a novel optical thin film material, erbium-doped deuterated amorphous carbon, fabricated directly on silicon substrate at room-temperature via controlled thermal evaporation of a Metal-Organic compound in a Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (MO-PECVD) system. High erbium concentrations (up to 2.3 at.%) and room-temperature photoluminescence at 1.54 microm are successfully demonstrated. Concentration quenching due to erbium clustering is reduced by adopting an appropriate MO precursor-Er(tmhd)(3). Another quenching mechanism, caused by non-radiative C-H and O-H vibrational transitions, is shown for the first time to be significantly reduced by deuteration instead of hydrogenation of amorphous carbon. Our results suggest that erbium-doped deuterated amorphous carbon is a promising new class of photonic material for silicon-compatible optoelectronics applications in the technologically important 1.5microm wavelength region.