The effect of erbium and oxygen on the photoluminescence intensity of erbium and the composition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>-SiO<Subscript>x</Subscript>:(H,Er, O) films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

The effect of the oxygen content (\(C_{O_2 } \)) in the gas mixture (20% of SiH₄ + 80% of Ar) + O₂ and the surface area of an erbium target (S_Er) on the composition and Er³⁺ photoluminescence of amorphous a-SiO_x:(H, Er, O) films prepared by dc magnetron sputtering has been investigated. Analysis of the experimental data shows that [Er-O] and [Er-O-Si-O] clusters are formed in the gas plasma due to the competing processes of oxidation and sputtering of Si and Er targets and to the interaction of [Si-O] and [Er-O] clusters with each other and with the oxygen in the gas phase. The discontinuities in the dependences of the contents of erbium-bound oxygen and erbium in a film, and N _O ^Er-O and N_Er = f(\(C_{O_2 } \), S_Er), at \(C_{O_2 } \) ≈ (5–6.5) mol % supports the hypothesis on the existence of different erbium clusters. The necessary conditions for preparing a-SiO_x:(H, Er, O) films with the highest photoluminescence intensity of erbium ions at a wavelength of 1.54 μm are determined.