Infrared micro-emitters made by pulsed laser deposition lift-off-based processing

Micro-structuration of rare-earth-doped materials by lift-off processing of pulsed laser deposited layers are promising in integrated optics, since they do not require complex processing. However, they are so far limited to Y 2 O 3 host and have never been reported for infrared emission, which have many applications in telecommunication, sensing and so on. In this work, we have studied micro-devices made by pulsed laser deposition combined to lift-off processing on Si, with Er-doped materials that have infrared emission at 1.54 µm wavelength, corresponding to the 4 I 1 3/2 → 4 I 1 5/2 Er 3+ transition. Two host materials have been compared: Al 2 O 3 commonly used in integrated optics and Y 2 O 3 , which is a well-known crystalline host for rare earth doping. For both materials, micro-photoluminescence measurements combined with X-ray diffraction showed efficient incorporation of Er 3+ ions into the host matrix, associated with strong emission when the matrix is amorphous for Al 2 O 3 or crystalline for Y 2 O 3 . Thus, this work extends the pulsed laser deposition lift-off processing to other materials and wavelength range, which opens the way of easy realization of infrared micro-emitter for photonics applications.