Erbium-ion implantation into various crystallographic cuts of Al2O3

This paper reports on the importance of crystallographic cuts with a different orientation on the luminescent properties and structural changes of Al2O3 implanted with Er+ ions at 190 keV and with a fluence of 1.0 × 1016 cm−2. Post-implantation annealing at 1000 °C in oxygen atmosphere was also done. The chemical compositions and erbium concentration-depth profiles of implanted layers were studied by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and compared to SRIM simulations. The same value of the maximum erbium concentration (up to 2 at.%) was observed at a depth of about 40 nm for all crystallographic cuts. The structural properties of the prepared layers were characterised by RBS/channelling. The relative amount of disordered atoms of 70–80% was observed in the prepared implanted layers and discussed for various cuts. It has been found that erbium is positioned randomly in the Al2O3 crystalline matrix, and no preferential positions appeared even after the annealing procedure. Erbium luminescence properties were measured in the wavelength range of 1440–1650 nm for all samples. As-implanted Al2O3 samples had a significant luminescence band at 1530 nm. The best luminescence was repeatedly observed in the 〈0 0 0 1〉 cut of Al2O3. The annealing procedure significantly improved the luminescent properties.