Heteroepitaxy of erbium-doped silicon layers on sapphire substrates

The possibility of using sublimation molecular-beam epitaxy as an efficient method for growing erbium-doped silicon layers on sapphire substrates for optoelectronic applications is analyzed. The advantage of this method is that the erbium-doped silicon layers can be grown at relatively low temperatures. The use of sublimation molecular-beam epitaxy makes it possible to grow silicon layers of good crystal quality. It is demonstrated that the growth temperature affects not only the structure of silicon-on-sapphire layers but also the crystallographic orientation of these layers. The electrical and luminescence properties of the erbium-doped silicon layers are discussed. It is revealed that structures of this type exhibit intense erbium photoluminescence at a wavelength of 1.54 μm.