Excitation and Relaxation Processes of Impact Excitation Emission of Er3+ Ions in InP

Abstract

ABSTRACTTime-resolved excitation and relaxation processes of the impact excitation emission (EL) at 1.54μm of Er3+ ions doped in InP were investigated in the temperature range from 77K to 330K. The decay process was almost exponential in all the measured temperature range and showed little thermal quenching. The decay time of 2ms at 77K decreased only to tms at 330K. This result contrasted with the large thermal quenching and nonexponential characteristics of the photoluminescence (PL) time decay at higher temperatures, suggesting different Er3+ centers excited between EL and PL. A two-emission-center model is proposed and the different behaviors of thermal quenching and time decay between EL and PL emissions are consistently explained.